James O'Connor (Cork East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Finally, I have been very despondent about the pace at which the HSE is delivering capital infrastructure. Mr. Gloster made reference to primary care settings. Youghal, County Cork, is a town of almost 10,000 people. Its catchment area increases that significantly but it has no primary care centre. We have repeatedly seen plans that have changed continuously. There was a HSE-led plan to redevelop St. Raphael's, the former psychiatric facility in Youghal. There is a older building there that is now disused, and has been for some time. There has been brilliant investment put into new de-congregated and hub facilities. They are state-of-the-art, with great care and fantastic staff. However, the older building at St. Raphael's has seen plans change in a concerning way several times. I think the original model was that the HSE was going to put in a 64-bed acute hospital facility as a replacement for the community hospital. Subsequent to that, all of these plans seem to have been shelved on grounds of cost. They are now looking at a private model. We have gone from a State-led public model to now involving private developers.