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

I thank the witnesses for their presentations. Can I go back to infrastructure development and the timescale it takes to roll out infrastructure in the HSE? I know the last time Mr. Watt appeared before the committee he said the elective hospitals would be signed off by mid-October we are now into mid-December. My understanding is that there is a memo going to Cabinet today but I am not sure whether it will be signed off. As regards the whole roll-out of infrastructure projects in the HSE, the South-Southwest Hospital Group made its presentation in January and we are now in December and have not even gotten past the first step yet. Will the Department of Health review the procedures on rolling out projects? The population of the country has increased by 1.2 million in the past 20 years and we need to fast track projects now. We cannot go through five and ten year waiting times, in particular with the increasing population in the Cork and Kerry areas. Has the Department looked at reviewing the whole road a project has to travel and how it can be fast tracked to reach the end objective?