Greens vote for plan to co-locate hospitals

Green Party deputies joined with Government colleagues last night in a Dáil vote endorsing proposals to co-locate hospitals. The party had been taunted by Fine Gael over the reversal of its policy on the issue.

On a division, which the Government won by 76 votes to 68, Green Party Minister of State Trevor Sargent and TDs Mary White, Ciarán Cuffe and Paul Gogarty voted for the proposals. Ministers John Gormley and Eamon Ryan were paired.

Speaking during the resumed debate on the Fine Gael Private Member's motion opposing the Government's plans to build private hospitals on public land, Fianna Fáil backbencher and GP Dr Jim McDaid strongly backed the co-location proposals.

"Initially, I wondered how the treatment purchase fund would work, which is comparable to co-location at this time," he said.

"Personally, I have had 171 patients dealt with through the drug treatment purchase fund. Ask any of them did they mind whether they had a public or private hospital. The pain they had suffered for years was gone and they now had a quality of life. Is that not the ultimate aim of all of us, especially those of us working in the health service?"

Introducing the motion, on Tuesday night, Fine Gael health spokesman Brian Hayes said his party was asking the Dáil to stop the most controversial plan to affect Irish healthcare in a generation.

"Handing over public land to private, for-profit hospitals does not have the support of the people and will serve to further entrench the two-tier health system which currently prevails," he said.

"After 10 years in office, the only big idea advocated by Fianna Fáil and the PDs, now supported by their allies the Green Party, is to hive off public landbanks at knock-down rates to private developers at considerable cost to taxpayers in taxes foregone.

"When the plan is up and running, there will be no going back. It came not from the wishes of the people but from the wishes of the Government without any consultation," he added.

Mr Hayes said there had been no Green Paper, detailed cost-benefit analysis, Dáil scrutiny or accountability.

Minister for Health Mary Harney said the National Development Finance Agency (NDFA) were the financial advisers to the department for the co-location project.

"The NDFA wrote to the department on Monday to confirm that, in their opinion, the tenders provide value for money relative to the PSB equivalent (Public Service Benchmark) at the current stage of the procurement process and that the project is in a position to move to the financial close stage," she added. She said co-location would achieve 1,000 new public beds.