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

I would appreciate that.

I would like to move on to the issue of capital spending in the Cork area.

I very much welcome the money being spent on Heather House on the north side of Cork city and the new residential facility in Blarney, where a recently-built hotel has been purchased and is now being converted. I will raise the issue of the elective hospital. I note than only €200,000 has been put into the capital expenditure for 2022 in this regard. It still has not been signed off on. We are still waiting for decisions on it. According to the emergency department figures in Cork University Hospital, CUH, and Mercy University Hospital, it took twice as long for people to get access to services as it did for people in any other hospital facility in the country. This highlights the urgent need for a new elective hospital.

The second issue I will raise is the time period we are talking about. Will the Department give consideration to engaging in a public-private partnership, PPP, on the basis that the hospital would be delivered in a faster timeframe? This is an emergency situation. There has not been a new bed opened in the Cork and Kerry region in the past 30 years. This is something we need to prioritise, particularly in light of the figures released today with regard to the emergency departments in Mercy University Hospital and CUH.