Kevin Humphreys (Labour) | Oireachtas source

The Minister asked for Saint Joseph's administrators to enter into intense negotiations with the National Treatment Purchase Fund, NTPF, which they did. In those discussions, the NTPF identified that the cost for a patient to stay in this facility was approximately €1,783 a week. Why did it offer to maintain the same patient for €1,350 a week? When that came to light, Saint Joseph's appealed the decision but the appeal will not be heard or adjudicated on until next March. One cannot ask a charitable institution to spend funds that it does not have on the basis of an appeal. This has been going on for a decade.

With reluctance, I propose an amendment to the Order of Business calling on the Minister for the Health to attend this House, immediately after the Order of Business to explain his remarks and, in particular, if he is still as certain as he was in the Lower House that Saint Joseph's will remain open.On the financial figures we have been given, it will not remain open. I am only raising one issue and will be brief and finish on this point. When the Minister of State, Deputy Daly, came to the House, I challenged him on the same statements and he avoided and dodged. He said that the National Treatment Purchase Fund was independent. If that independence was there when the Minister, Deputy Harris, said in the Dáil that the doors would not close and that the facility would remain open-----