Shane Ross (Independent)
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I am raising the issue of the run-down of the capital investment and the Government's commitment to the Adelaide and Meath Hospital in Tallaght. Concerns have been expressed by the hospital as the result of recent decisions. It is not just the recent decision on the location of the proposed national children's hospital. While the Adelaide may be losing its children's hospital, for some time there has been a certain amount of disillusionment in the Adelaide at the Government's commitment to the agreements made in 1996.

The main issue is that of tertiary paediatric care in the hospital and its removal. There is a deep feeling in Tallaght that this will dismember the hospital. The Minister of State will not need any introduction to the fact that Tallaght has the largest growing child population in the country. It also has the highest number of women of child-bearing age. The threats to the child and maternity care in Tallaght are not just serious for the hospital and its prevalent ethos but also to the area. The dangers of emasculating the hospital are serious and difficult to understand.

Two issues must be addressed in the threat to Tallaght Hospital. First, there is the real threat to medical treatment for people in the area and the dangers of a fall in standards in quality and quantity of medical attention, particularly in child and maternity care. There is also the danger to the ethics practised at the Adelaide hospital for so long. It is unique in that it protects for minorities the privacy of the doctor-patient relationship which is not practised in other hospitals. The possibility that some of the facilities will be removed from the Adelaide threatens that particular relationship. This is a sensitive area. It is a matter of parents from minority beliefs having to make decisions on requiring medical treatment that may not be acceptable to other denominations. In the Adelaide's case, it is important the pluralist ethos is not removed from the child and maternity care area.

In 1996, the then Government committed to the hospital's charter and its guarantee of minority rights. The danger now is that it no longer seems to consider the commitment to the guarantee is binding. In the light of the children's issue, will the Government consider the proposal made by officials from the hospital? The proposal stated that if the Government insists on having the main children's hospital in the Mater, there should at least be a ancillary one on Dublin's southside. It is not just because it has the fastest growing population in the country. It is also because there are real dangers to children's health if there is only one hospital in Dublin that can treat certain conditions. Yesterday a doctor informed me that there are dangers of children dying because they will not get across Dublin city in time. That is not an exaggeration. It is essential that the Mater is made a hub hospital and that the spokes are in Bray, west Dublin and north Dublin. I urge the Minister of State to consider that. He might also consider the real issue of Tallaght Hospital having been run down from a promised bed capacity of 800 beds to 513 beds and the crisis of under-feeding that existed in 1989.

I wish to make three brief points. We need paediatric hospitals on both the north side and the south side of Dublin. We also need a maternity hospital to be built on the site of the Adelaide Hospital. In addition, we need 200 new public beds in the Adelaide Hospital, as originally promised. Above all, we need academic development so that, as promised, Tallaght Hospital can have new chairs in radiology, anaesthetics and clinical genetics.

Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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I will be taking the Adjournment matter on behalf of my colleague, the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Harney.

The Adelaide and Meath Hospital, Dublin, incorporating the National Children's Hospital, AMNCH, was opened in June 1998. The hospital was built at a cost of approximately €180 million and has 588 beds available. It replaced outmoded and inadequate facilities in the base hospital with a modern, state-of-the-art hospital, of which we should all feel proud.

The hospital was funded by the Eastern Regional Health Authority until 2004 and since then it has been funded by the Health Service Executive. The revenue allocation to AMNCH has increased from €63 million in 1997, before the hospital moved to Tallaght, to €192 million in 2006. That is a considerable increase in nine years. This increase compares favourably with the increased revenue allocations to the other Dublin academic teaching hospitals over the same period.

Even in the relatively short period since the hospital opened, a number of capital projects have been completed at the hospital. These include, a new magnetic resonance imaging system, MRI, a picture archiving computer system, PACS, and ICT upgrades. A new symptomatic breast unit has been set up and a specialised breast surgeon is in place since 2002. A total of 28 additional consultant posts have been approved at the hospital since it opened in 1998. These posts include consultancy services in geriatric medicine, palliative care, neurology, and medical oncology.

Additional funding has been allocated to develop cancer services at the hospital. The Tánaiste officially launched the oncology day unit and a new pancreatic unit at the hospital on Friday, 23 June 2006. Given that new units have opened as recently as that, it would give the lie to the assertion that the hospital is being run down. A sum of €1.5 million in capital and €2.2 million in revenue was included in the Tánaiste's ten-point accident and emergency plan to support the development of an acute medical unit at the hospital. Almost €1 million was allocated in 2004 to 2005 for the development of renal services at the hospital.

The service developments I have outlined for the House represent tangible evidence of the Government's commitment to the continued provision of high quality, inclusive, multi-denominational hospital services at the Adelaide and Meath Hospitals, including the children's hospital, in keeping with the ethos of the hospital as outlined in the Adelaide charter.

I apologise as many of the Senator's comments related to the children's unit and this does not appear to have been covered in the reply. It is my understanding that all of the medical experts felt that what was required was one state-of-the-art children's hospital in Dublin. I am not an authority in this area but I presume accident and emergency services or short-term facilities for children would be provided on the south side, given that the north side has been chosen as the site of the proposed national children's hospital. I doubt that the provision of a full children's hospital on the south side would be envisaged.

All the medical experts appear to be of the view that what we require is one state-of-the-art hospital and that the very best facilities would be located there. I accept that the losing side is unhappy with the decision but I hope the medical experts will be of a united view. That was the approach they took prior to the decision being taken. They appeared to believe that only one hospital was required and I hope they will not begin to fight over patches at this stage. I accept what the Senator said and I will report it back to the Tánaiste. I apologise that the reply did not take on board more specific aspects of the question. The Tánaiste was recently in the hospital announcing new facilities and while services for children may not be as good in the future when the new hospital is up and running — which will take a few years — it would appear that the development of the hospital is considered a major part of the health service in the future and will be fully resourced.

Shane Ross (Independent)
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I wish to ask a supplementary question as I believe I am entitled to do. I thank the Minister of State for departing from that particularly irrelevant brief, for which I do not blame him. I appreciate that he took the trouble to answer some of the questions and undertook to report my inquiry on the children's hospital and the dangers attached to taking that to the Mater Hospital alone, to the Tánaiste. Will the Minister of State also confirm that the assurances given in the 1996 charter regarding the ethos of the Adelaide Hospital will be transferred in all cases in respect of the facilities going to the Mater Hospital?

Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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If the Senator's questions were on housing or drugs I might be better equipped to answer them. The reply included a guarantee to that effect in respect of the existing hospital. I believe a meeting was held last week——

Shane Ross (Independent)
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With the Minister of State's brother?

Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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Yes. I think I saw some reference to that effect in the media. I am under the impression that assurances were given to that effect, and that any concerns people may have had about the ethos of the Mater Hospital being fully enforced were allayed. I believe the Government intends that the new children's hospital will be multidenominational or secular, whichever term the Senator may prefer. I do not speak as an authority on the matter but I did read that members of the board of the AMNCH sought assurances to that effect in regard to the new children's hospital and, as far as I am aware, they were given. However, I do not wish to be too categoric in that regard. If a meeting was held with the Taoiseach, the matter was obviously brought to a high level and it is my understanding that assurances were given in regard to these concerns.