Mr. Stephen Mulvany:

As the Senator said, the winter plan is not a solution to the overall infrastructure problems in Galway. The key points are that we accept there are significant infrastructural problems in Galway hospital. Its ED is probably the last of the EDs that has not either been refurbished or replaced in recent years. Generally speaking, there are a lot of challenges with the infrastructure. That is acknowledged. We will push ahead with those investments as quickly as possible but as the Senator knows, they are all multi-year investments. We will do what can be done to progress them and prioritise them in the overall sphere. In addition, and my colleagues may want to talk about individual detail, we are also focused on working with Galway to make whatever improvements they can make with the resources they currently have. As I have said, each of those investments is a number of years away. We will support the hospital site and the local community to make sure all the process improvements that can be made in advance of those developments are made, . However, there is no shortage of support from us in terms of progressing the capital developments.