There is huge concern over the closure of the youth clinic at Tallaght Hospital on 19 July. Up to 8,000 children in west Dublin who have had their broken bones treated in Tallaght Hospital will not be able to have their cases reviewed in the hospital. The hospital has said that the service was being delivered by a locum consultant whose contract has now ceased. Despite the best efforts of hospital management, it not proved possible to maintain the service in the short term due to recruitment challenges. This is a consultant in Tallaght Hospital servicing children's broken bones. This service will be moved to Our Lady's Hospital, Crumlin. Why was the consultant not replaced to deal with this issue in the short term? We urgently need to ensure that these children in Tallaght will not be forced to travel to Crumlin, thereby putting more pressure on scarce resources there.

As the Deputy is aware, there are plans for the emergency clinics for children in Tallaght Hospital to continue. As the new national hospital for children develops, there are strong plans in place to ensure there will be a very good service in Tallaght for children in respect of a range of services. The Deputy is making a point about a specific consultant. There is a question mark over who will replace that person. There has been difficulty in recruiting staff for the hospital services. This issue also arose recently in respect of a particular service at St. Vincent's University Hospital. This has been resolved by the action of the Minister and arrangements have been made for that service, so I will ask the Minister to contact the Deputy about the circumstances in Tallaght as I am not familiar with them.