Mr. Paul Reid:

I wish to be clear, in that this is not about closure. It is about realignment and enhancing quality patient safety. As Ms O'Connor said, it is about protecting people's lives. She listed some of the investments in Navan. Those were not just made over many years but in recent years. A new laboratory and radiology equipment were put in place in 2019. There was theatre development in 2020 and 2021. There is an expanded recovery room, a new day ward-minor procedure room, a new rehabilitation unit and a new psychiatric day hospital, and the extension of the outpatient department has been under development since 2021. We will continue to invest in Navan hospital. We will realign. To set out the scale, approximately five or six patients will need to be transferred to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital per day.

Some of the benefits, which have probably not been communicated well in recent days, include advanced surgical care and supports from the Mater hospital, which will see more surgeries and theatre utilisation at Navan by specialists from the Mater. It will be a much-strengthened hospital. I ask the Deputy to examine what has happened with other hospitals. I acknowledge the political pressures on him, but those hospitals ended up being much safer and more enhanced for the communities they served.