Mr. Muiris O'Connor:

This is one of the areas where we anticipate very significant benefits from the development and introduction of health regions. They align with county boundaries for the most part. They are very well matched with local authorities. We expect that when we devolve those management structures and put them in place, they will have much more regular, routine and stronger relationships with local authorities, community development work and all other public agencies in their areas. The Deputy is right. Pre-planning and building facilities where developments are happening is vital. The projections and updated demand forecasts the ESRI is working on for ourselves and for the HSE are taking in information at a very granular level, the local electoral district level, and it will be able to monitor and spot areas where growth has been particularly substantial. It will also understand the anticipated demographics of the population.