Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 5 November 2025
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health
Long-term Planning in the Health Services: Discussion
2:00 am
Mr. Derek Tierney:
Mr. Gloster is right. We are investing quite a significant amount of euro into refurbishing the existing stock to comply with HIQA standards. That will continue probably into early 2027 so my job is to look for an opportunity to overlap that and start to build new capacity. Mr. O'Connor might have to referred to it earlier. I picked it out in the opening statement. The ESRI has done quite a bit of work for us to help us understand the model demand forecast out to 2040. That is great because it gives two parameters within which to plan. Where there is appetite on the part of the private sector to build, I will not stand in its way and I do not think the State will but we must make sure that when we start building new infrastructure that it is regionally balanced as well so there is equity of access and geographical distance does not become a barrier to access.
No comments