Neasa Hourigan (Dublin Central, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

We would love to see that.

Finally, I want to go back to St. Stephen's Hospital. I visited the hospital which was interesting because it really is a campus. It takes a while to get to. I am not used to the wilds of Cork. Will the witnesses expand on the proposed 50-bed continuing care rehabilitation facility? It will be bungalow-style residences. Having been there, it seems a very isolated, albeit a beautiful, leafy campus. It also seems very medicalised. It is right beside the hospital. There is an elective hospital planned for there too.

My understanding is that there was a long-running strategy to move patients out of St. Stephen's to community residences in Mallow, Fermoy and Kanturk. That whole idea of community integration and A Vision for Change was to move people away from that site. It now seems that with the 50 beds, in the context of 34 beds in north Cork and none in east Cork, the plan is to centralise those placements for a wide catchment area in this very cut-off hospital campus. I do not understand. I have gone through this with other committees. There is a discussion around how long people would stay but it seems to run counter to Sharing the Vision and A Vision for Change.

The estimated cost of the some of the other projects in the area is considerable. In terms of the HSE’s national budget and having to make those kinds of decisions, will the witnesses expand on the plans for the 50-bed continuing care facility? How much do they expect to spend on these new facilities? How long is it expected that people might stay in these facilities? Why would that money not be directed to 24-hour staff or to community integrated services in towns such as Midleton? This is not particularly about Owenacurra. We could see them in Clonakilty, Bandon, Cobh and Youghal. They do not exist in any of those place right now. Why is a very expensive 50-bed unit the priority, rather than anything else?