Colm Burke (Cork North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I want to move on to the issues relating to the proposals for the three elective hospitals in Cork, Galway and Dublin. It appears to me that what is proposed is very much watered down from the original. In the case of Cork, in particular, the existing hospital is an old building, originally built in 1751, with very little capacity to extend or renovate it. Now there is talk of its being a day care facility. If it is a day-only hospital, it will not be able to carry out serious operations, such as hip or knee procedures. This means that large numbers of people will be excluded from availing of that facility, including anyone with underlying conditions such as diabetes. It is going to be a very restricted facility. We are now four or five years on from when this hospital was originally proposed and a site for it has not even been identified. Where are we at with the proposal for elective hospitals, including site identification? Even if a site were identified tomorrow, it will be necessary to go through a planning process. We are at least four to five years down the road from anything being delivered.