asked the Minister for Health if he is aware that a large number of hospital wards will be closed for long periods during the current year; if he is concerned for the implications for patients needing hospitalisation; and if he will make a statement on the matter.

I am aware that some hospitals will close wards for periods during the current year. It is normal practice to close some wards during holiday periods, especially in the summer months, when patient demand tends to be at a lower level than at other times of the year and consultant and other hospital staffs are on annual leave. Temporary closures are also necessary to enable essential maintenance and repairs to be carried out at minimum inconvenience to patients.

Such closures may result in some patients having to wait a little longer for elective admission to hospital, but I can assure the Deputy that adequate arrangements will be available to treat emergency cases.

Surely the Minister is not suggesting that the closures being announced in every health board area and in the voluntary hospitals are the normal closures for maintenance associated with the summer holiday period? I will take just one example, namely, the Mater Hospital where the cardiac surgery unit will close for the month of August and where 50 beds are closed for the remainder of the year. Surely the Minister accepts that this is not a normal pattern of behaviour in Irish hospitals.

Since the Deputy mentioned the Mater Hospital, a widely publicised letter was issued by the chief executive officer of that hospital. I do not want to sound harsh about this but that letter will be the subject of a very critical discussion with the representatives of the Mater Hospital when my officials meet them tomorrow to discuss this issue for the first time. Meanwhile, officers of my Department have been meeting some of the officers from the Mater Hospital and we are coming up with some rather interesting information, including the fact that not one of those proposals was even costed.

I can assure the Deputy that there will not be any closure of the cardiac services in that hospital in the month of August. I am certain of that. If the Deputy has any difficulties finding out the facts, he can consult the Deputy in his party who is in the employment of that hospital. He will know that a lot of what happened in relation to this incident is very disturbing not least in terms of the role of the consultants — and I am not necessarily holding them responsible for that decision. I believe the decision will be dramatically changed, but it is all part of a major campaign to try to screw an extra few million pounds out of the Minister of the day without the slightest shred of justification. A couple of consultants, quite rightly, blew the gaff on the board. I am grateful that they exposed what was a most distasteful and undesirable effort on the part of the hospital, which has a very good budget of £25.4 million. The cardiac unit in that hospital was running well to budget this year and, if the Deputy wants to ask the consultants how that unit was running, he can easily get that information.

The way hospitals have deliberately politicised their budget problems is almost unique to these islands. I am not for one second suggesting that the Deputy is in any way involved, but his good offices and his good sense in relation to the Mater might have been taken for granted.

On what does the Minister base his categoric statement today that these proposals were not costed? Why did he issue statements that consultations had not been held with officials of his Department when apparently consultations have been held on a number of occasions and letters have been written to the Department pointing out what cut-backs would be involved?

There are ongoing discussions with the Mater Hospital but the decision of the board to publish a letter — and I am going on memory because I do not have the letter in front of me — on 28 May to the general practitioners of the catchment area, and I think it was notified to the Department on 6 June, was taken without consultation with the Department. This decision was taken quite deliberately with a view to stirring things up.

The Minister issued a statement that there were no consultations between his officials and the representatives of the Mater Hospital. He is now saying that the savings were not costed. What if I said that the savings for closing the cardiac unit for a month would be £200,000——

The costings were not made available to the Department of Health. To the best of my knowledge the only information made available to the Department was a copy of the notice issued to the general practitioners in the area. I want to stress that at the meeting with the general practitioners when the board representatives were asked what would be the savings under those headings, the board were unable to answer. All they indulged in was cheap abuse of myself and the Department.