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

We have had a population increase of 40%. We are talking about building a new elective hospital. If we went out to the private sector they would have it done and dusted in three years. At the rate we are going we will not see this hospital for at least five years. We are under huge pressure in all of the core costs. We need additional beds. We have a whole lot of problems where we have consultants employed who are not using it to full capacity because they do not have operating space and even if they do have operating space they do not have the beds available to care for patients after the operation. I do not understand why this project is now going to take five years.