Tim Lombard (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will not enter the debate on what time we should adjourn. That has been debated at length by so many other Senators this morning and this afternoon.

I bring to the attention of the House a significant development that has happened in the last 48 hours in my part of the world in Cork. Amazingly, we have a major hospital in Cork University Hospital, CUH, but since 2003 we have no helipad. If anyone knows the geographical nature of my county, it is more than 120 miles long and we had no helipad in CUH. The significant development is that CUH has applied for planning permission 15 years after demolishing the previous helipad and now it is going ahead. It is amazing to think that we had to wait 15 years for a helipad in such a major hospital with such a vast sea that has such activity that we have all unfortunately seen and that needs the co-operation of the Coast Guard services. In future we need to plan forward for where these major hospitals will be placed and then build the infrastructure around them.

It is bizarre that we had to wait 15 years for this project to move forward. I welcome it but it was 15 years of a rural, coastal community looking for a service that was badly wanted and I am sure the Leader will also comment on it when he speaks but what they used to do was land the helicopters on a rugby pitch near the hospital and it was an absolutely bizarre sight. That is how my part of the community was served so it is significant and it is welcomed but why did it have to take 15 years to move forward?