Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

That was a group that did a piece of work and has now disbanded. It was brought together to do that single piece of work, which it has done. However, the Department is looking at this. Officials are looking at capacity deficits across the country. For example, there will be a new elective hospital in Cork but that is not enough. There is a significant deficit in beds that needs to be addressed at the same time. The same is true in Galway. The elective hospital in the Galway area will not solve all the problems. In regard to the University Hospital Galway system, more beds are needed anyway. It is the same case in Limerick. These pieces of work are going on at the same time.

I believe that the elective approach is very strong because any doctor, nurse or health and social care professional working in an acute hospital will tell one that, with the best will in the world, the operating lists get knocked all the time with people coming in through the emergency departments. In Limerick, the question of whether we expand Croom hospital was raised with me. It does not only do elective work, but it does a lot of elective work.