Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I join Senator Humphreys in raising the extremely important issue of maternity hospitals. I fully agree that a ten-month delay in the lodging of a planning application is unreasonable. It is about time those involved resolved their differences and got on with it.

I remind the House that a 2003 report on our maternity services suggested that there should be approximately 180 consultants in this area within six or seven years, but we have between 130 and 135 at present. We have made very little progress even though the annual number of deliveries has increased from 50,000 some years ago to approximately 65,000 at present, having been over 75,000 at one stage in the interim.

People on the front-line, including nurses, doctors and administrators, are facing major challenges every day because of the significant lack of staff in the maternity area. We have not done enough. We do not have the facilities. We have to wait for an unreasonable period of time when we want to build the facilities.

The development of a new children's hospital has already dragged on for almost 25 years. We should not allow the same thing to happen in the case of the maternity hospital. I agree with my colleague that the Minister should come in here to explain what the Department intends to do and when it is going to do it. When is it going to set a deadline for this matter to progress?We need answers and we should not have wait until this time next year to get them.