David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Okay. I will come back on a second round on other issues. There may have been an expectation built up that now cannot be realised. Going back to what was actually said in this committee from the Department of Health officials when they were pushed on this, if I recall it was the head of capital infrastructure from the Department who talked about some of those beds coming onstream in 2024 and some in 2025. They said they could really deliver on this quickly and it was a two-year project. Funnily enough this is what was covered in the newspaper articles on the same matter, which I could send on to the Minister. I do not believe this will be the reality. I do not see any of those beds coming on stream this year. I might be wrong and the Minister might surprise me. I do not see any of them coming on stream next year. It is important that we move on them.

The Minister is right that it would be a significant investment. At 1,500 beds even rapid build would probably cost in excess of €1 billion in capital at a minimum, or in and around that. Then there is the issue of the staff needed as well. We had an earlier conversation on the recruitment freeze. Again I do not see how we are going to be able to deliver the beds with that in place. It should be a priority.

I do want to come back in on mental health, on elective-only hospitals and on digital transformation in healthcare. These are three areas that have come up this year where we have not really got any satisfaction from officials. In fact they have conceded and acknowledged to us that in all of those areas there is slow progress. I will come back in later to tease out some of those areas. I will leave it at that for now.