Mr. Robert Watt:

I will comment on the latter point the Deputy made and Mr. Reid may wish to comment on some of the other points he made.

It is certainly our intention to fast-track and build this facility as quickly as possible. The business case is now with us and that goes to the assurance process with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. Rather than doing things sequentially, which has been the norm, we are now going to do much of that assurance in parallel to get through it as quickly as possible in order that we can get final approval from the Government. We can then start the detailed design and procurement process. We are doing everything we can to accelerate this.

When we get to the actual procurement and construction stage, I have heard the Deputy’s suggestion and I do not know the details of that, but we are completely open to working with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the HSE team on any options to accelerate this. There is always a challenge in Ireland in respect of building things. It takes a long time for reasons that we are all aware of. Many of those reasons are legitimate but we need to do everything we can to accelerate. We cannot have a situation where we are having this debate in a year’s time, having not started the detailed work. We need to start work and build this hospital as quickly as possible because this is urgently needed.