Martin Ferris (Kerry North-West Limerick, Sinn Fein)

I wish to share time with Deputy Healy-Rae.

Build 4 Life is a voluntary organisation founded and run by the families and friends of cystic fibrosis patients in Kerry and Cork. It is one of the few registered charities, if not the only one, in this country in which every penny donated goes to the intended project. The volunteers who run the organisation do not even claim expenses, and no administration costs are deducted from donations. To date the charity has raised millions and has provided an outpatient unit for cystic fibrosis sufferers at Cork University Hospital. It is currently working towards developing an inpatient unit in the same hospital, which will cost €2.3 million. It has raised €2 million so far, and it hoped its application for national lottery funding, which it sent to the office of the Minister for Health, Deputy Reilly, at the start of this year, will provide it with the final €300,000. Although the application was initially submitted a year ago, it had to be resubmitted in January 2011, and to date the charity has not received an official decision. However, it has been told unofficially by a public representative that it will get nothing.

Many of the volunteers have given years of their lives to this project and feel this decision is a kick in the stomach to them and to the 25% of cystic fibrosis sufferers in Ireland who happen to live in the catchment area of Cork University Hospital, that is, in Cork, Kerry and south Tipperary. This unit is desperately needed and would be provided without any cost to the Exchequer. Of the €3.8 million, all that is required is €300,000 in national lottery funding that the Minister has within his gift. Build 4 Life cannot get over the hypocrisy of the new Minister who, when he sat on this side of the House, castigated the former Minister, Mary Harney, time and again about the state of the health service and issues such as this. Yet when he is on the other side of the House and has within his gift the possibility of giving €300,000 to get this unit up and running, he has refused to give that money. With the amount of money that has been spent on materials and the construction of this facility, Build 4 Life has paid almost €400,000 in VAT.

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