Pádraig Rice (Cork South-Central, Social Democrats)

Thank you for that. In the final minute, I might touch on the elective hospitals because I am slightly concerned at what we are hearing. There does not seem to be clarity in terms of the timeline, when we are going to go to planning or when these hospitals are going to be delivered. There were four elective hospitals to be delivered in Cork, Galway and Dublin. These are recommended as part of Sláintecare with a delivery timeline of 2027 and 2028. That was the timeline set out in Sláintecare. However, the delivery time is unclear and I am concerned about the timeline in Cork. There is not even clarity in terms of when we might even go to planning on that.

Can we get more detail on when we anticipate these hospitals to be built, when we will get the planning application submitted and what is the estimated cost? These are crucially important and I would like more clarity on the delivery of them.