asked the Minister for Health if he will consider making funds available to the Western Health Board to have modern X-ray equipment provided at Belmullet Hospital, County Mayo.

This is a matter for consideration in the first instance by the Western Health Board. I understand that the board has no plans to provide such a unit at Belmullet Hospital. Acute hospital services, including X-ray services, for the Mayo area are available from the General Hospital in Castlebar.

Is the Minister aware it is necessary for people to travel a distance of 60 miles to Castlebar for X-ray treatment? In the case of elderly people a degree of hardship is involved, a hardship which could be relieved if the health board were to provide a unit in Belmullet Hospital.

The case made by Deputy Gallagher could be made in regard to other areas as well. There is no plan to provide X-ray facilities at Belmullet District Hospital. The proposed scheme of development at Castlebar General Hospital is expected to go to tender in June of this year. That scheme will cost £2 million. It will provide even better X-ray facilities than exist at the moment. That announcement was made by Deputy Kenny quite some time ago.

I would expect the Minister to be a bit more positive about Castlebar Hospital. The position is that people have to travel immense distances and that causes hardship. It is a burden they should not have to carry and I would ask the Minister to ask the Western Health Board to look at the situation and try to provide more convenient facilities.

It is not the policy to provide X-ray facilities in district hospitals with the exception of a few large district hospitals such as Ballina. We cannot dictate to the health boards what facilities should be provided. We can make suggestions but we cannot dictate.

Do I take it the Minister would be sympathetic if the Western Health Board were to look for funds to provide this particular service?

I would certainly be sympathetic but it is only fair to point out I cannot dictate to the board as to what they should or should not do or how they should spend their funds.