David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the witnesses. As I have discussed with Mr. Reid in the past, I am a big supporter of regional health areas. I see significant potential in them. The logic of the policy to integrate primary, community and acute healthcare is strong and I support it. We had some discussion at the last meeting of the different options that went to Cabinet. I would have preferred a different option, probably a variant of options two and three, although that is obviously my own opinion. Mr. Watt said we are setting a direction of travel, so all of these processes and structures which are put in place could evolve over time, which is fair enough. I want to drill down into how that will work practically, because that is the substance of this meeting. I have a question about Navan hospital, which relates to the regionalisation issue. I see on the map for Sláintecare that it will be area A, which would contain Monaghan, Cavan, Meath, Louth and Dublin north. Part of the logic of regional health areas is alignment of primary, acute and community care, but also alignment of hospitals within those regional catchment areas. What is the official HSE policy on the emergency department at Navan? There is some confusion about it.