Mr. Jim Breslin:

There will be a 26% increase in day cases in the hospital. It goes back to the question of whether the hospital should be all about beds or whether it should also have other facilities. The theatre provision will assist in rapidly moving children through the hospital. It is good paediatric practice to avoid keeping a child in overnight unnecessarily. Rather, the child should return home. It is essential to have good ambulatory theatres and outpatient facilities as well as the five MRI machines of which each constituent hospitals has, at most, one. The investment in diagnostics, theatres, ambulatory care and the centres in Blanchardstown and Tallaght hospitals are essential to the model of care we are seeking to provide. Theatres are not an area in which I would consider de-scoping.