Last week the Health Service Executive, HSE, made a decision to remove the X-ray room from the planned extension to the accident and emergency department at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda. Those plans have been in place for ten years and the X-ray room was costed and included in the tender. Medical professionals have for years been crying out because of the need for a second X-ray room. The only X-ray room at the hospital is beyond full capacity and the equipment in it is ten years old and obsolete. X-ray is a major diagnostic tool for 80% of patients who go through accident and emergency departments. For the HSE to indicate it will go ahead with an extension to the accident and emergency department without an X-ray room is pure madness. It is like building a house without a roof.

Did the Minister for Health or his Department instruct the HSE to remove the X-ray room from the plans that were in situ for ten years? Will the Minister stand over the madness of a myopic mindset evident in senior HSE management that ignores front-line staff who, for years, have cried out for a second X-ray room? Will he instead do his job and instruct the HSE to revert to the original plans, with the inclusion of an X-ray room in the extension to the accident and emergency department? The current position is pure and utter madness.

I am quite sure the Minister for Health made no such direction and it would not be normal practice for a health Minister to get involved with the detailed design of a hospital, any more than an education Minister would be involved with the detailed design of a university or school. I will inform the Minister, who cannot be here because he is attending a committee meeting, that the matter has been raised and ask him to provide the Deputy with a written answer.

Please do. It is a very serious issue.

That concludes questions on promised legislation and 16 Deputies were not reached today.