Mr. Jim Breslin:

On the question about elective procedures only, and building on Mr. Woods's comments, under the new arrangement we would focus on elective. Some, such as cancer care relocations, would be separate but by and large we would focus on elective. I believe the meat of the question Deputy Shortall has asked relates to a project we have under way under Sláintecare, where we have fully mapped and assessed the needs of service delivery mechanisms that would say "Here is the service output we need for Dublin, Cork and Galway". We have also looked at other parts of the State but these are the three areas mentioned in the national development plan. We are now at the phase of moving that into a facility requirement. We will then put a cost on that facility, that is, were we to deliver an elective hospital at that scale for those services, what would be the facility required and what would it cost? Then we would get to the point of making a question to the market as to whether it would be a new build or a purchase. I am agnostic on that but it is important that we do the work over the next few weeks to get us to that point.