Mary Ann O'Brien (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I draw the attention of Members to the shambles that continues to unfold beneath our eyes in the guise of St. James's Hospital.

Today the board of the national children's hospital board is coming before the Committee of Public Accounts to be questioned about what is going on with regard to St. James's Hospital. Before we broke up for the summer recess I tabled an Adjournment matter asking the Minister for Health about the master plan for St. James's. I remind the House that the Dolphin report asked that a master plan be presented by the hospital chosen to be the site for the new children's hospital. I since put in a freedom of information request to St. James's for a master plan. There is no such plan for St. James's. The last master plan produced by the hospital was in 2008 and there was no mention of a children's hospital in it. We all know a master plan is a strategy, a ten-year plan for the hospital's use of space and where its specialties will be located. I wrote to the Minister for Health about this yesterday. No maternity hospital was mentioned in the master plan. There is no maternity hospital planned and there is no space for one.
I welcome the very generous grant of €75 million given by Trinity College Dublin towards a cancer unit at St. James's Hospital, but I ask Trinity College if we can join the dots with the plans for a children's hospital. We have sold the National Lottery to pay for a children's hospital, which was supposed to cost in the region of €458 million. At the moment we are looking at an estimate of €650 million for St. James's. I ask the Leader to ask the Minister for Health to come to the House and have a reasonable debate about St. James's Hospital.I have been told before that it is a done deal. The board members are before the Committee of Public Accounts today. It should not be a done deal because there is so much wrong.
Yesterday in The Irish Times, to move slightly away from my subject, the closure of the children's dental clinic at St. James's Hospital was criticised. Again we are talking about St. James's, this time a HSE-run children's dental clinic at the hospital. This general anaesthetic clinic treats 3,000 children a year. It has had to close because, when the original building was demolished due to the construction of the Luas line, they put up a semi-permanent structure which was not deemed suitable, and now it has been closed with no future plans. Can the Minister for Health please come to the House and give us an answer? What is going to happen to these children? They have basically been told that they can stay on antibiotics and if the pain really gets bad they can go to a private practice. I repeat that we have sold the national lottery. We are now talking about a budget of €650 million. It would have cost €500 million in Connolly Hospital, where we had enough space. Again, I urge the Minister for Health to come to the House and take note of this.