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

My bugbear with this relates to Youghal in east Cork. I do not mean to be parochial but it is a good example. There was a plan at St. Raphael's, which is a former psychiatric facility, and a section of it is still used for that purpose. The facility was heavily modernised. A state-of-the-art plan was rolled out for St. Raphael's to modernise it and make it into a start-of-the-art community healthcare facility by putting in the primary care there, and doing analysis on a community nursing unit being built on site. At some stage during 2022, and perhaps during 2021, that plan was abandoned and, as Mr. O'Connell has said, it was decided to pursue the operational lease model. I cannot wrap my head around why the HSE went so far down the route, spent so much money on the analysis and the site, and effectively went public through its answers to parliamentary questions, the national development plan and the HSE's capital plans for development there to be done to such an extent. A community nursing unit with more than 50 beds was being considered and then there was a decision to switch. I cannot understand why the HSE went so far down the route and then changed course opting for the operational lease model. Why was that done in that instance?