Ms Anne O'Connor:

The Deputy will know from the meeting on Monday that we discussed whether we should have invested more in Navan over the years. Navan hospital has 62 medical beds. Any other model 3 or model 4 hospital has a minimum of 200 or 250 beds. It is not an option to build Navan's number up. While we all accept Meath has become more populated and that certain parts of the county are growing, many specialties do not exist in Navan – nephrology, neurology, infectious diseases and sufficient ICU cover. The Deputy will know from the meeting that all of the emergency department consultant and ICU consultant cover is currently provided by Drogheda. Navan hospital is not accredited by any of the colleges for training, so it is not an option to put trainees there.

It is not sustainable or safe to try to deliver every healthcare service everywhere. Were we to have done that with the cancer control programme years ago, we would not have the cancer outcomes we have today. This change will be difficult.

There has been significant investment in Navan. We have put in place additional theatres and radiology services. We are continuing to invest. The integrated care teams we have been discussing at this meeting are working with Navan hospital. We have put in place 84 beds at Our Lady of Lourdes in recognition of the need coming from Navan. Forty of those beds were to compensate for the growing activity in the Drogheda area and 44 were to compensate for the reduction in admissions to Navan. Something else the Deputy will know from Monday is that, in recognition of the growing demographics, we are putting in place a further ten medical beds in Drogheda. The Deputy heard from the CEO of the RCSI Hospitals Group on Monday that he believed this was sufficient to compensate for any additional admissions through Drogheda's emergency department. We are also putting in place two additional ICU beds and additional ambulance resources, all of which has been agreed and is in train.

Significant and detailed consideration has been given to the demands that will arise as a result of this change. This is in the interests of people's health and lives. On the basis of what I have just set out, we will not be able to sustain that service at Navan in the way described.