Marc MacSharry (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I propose an amendment to the Order of Business and call for the Minister for Health to come to the House. Following on from what my colleague, Senator Mullen, has said - and it is a shame he was not here for the debate last week on the hospitals issue - two things remain to be discussed. First, we do not know why a report was prepared in the first place and we do not have its terms of reference. We do know that its underlying agenda - which was clearly considered by the board's management - is to downgrade, downsize and reduce the number of maternity centres in the hospital region. That is clear when one reads the report.

Second, the Minister mentioned that there was a breach of procurement policy. However, he did not bring into the public domain the fact that the chairman of the west and north west hospital group was a shareholder in the company that had compiled the report in the first place.