Ms Tracey Conroy:

I would like to comment briefly on the elective hospitals. Regarding the children's hospital there has been huge collaboration and engagement with the three existing children's hospitals on the design, scope and progression of the capital, as well as the integration programme. Any decisions that have been taken by the Government around capital projects on which we have been engaged as a Department in recent years have been informed by a very strong evidence-based policy. I refer to the maternity strategy and the decisions taken by the Government on the principle of trilocation of maternity hospitals with acute hospital sites. That was all done in collaboration with the key stakeholders. We are engaging with the National Maternity Hospital and St. Vincent's University Hospital. Decisions have been taken by the Government on the provision of maternity hospitals. The moves of the Coombe and the Rotunda hospitals, as well as a Limerick maternity hospital, are all included in the national development plan. There will be detailed consultation with all of those hospitals in that regard.

We have a national trauma strategy, which was written by the key clinicians, patients and hospitals involved and is now being implemented by the HSE in a groundbreaking consultative fashion. Mr. Sullivan may want to speak about this because there have been recent consultations in this regard. We have also published a national cancer strategy that makes recommendations on capital infrastructure, which will also be the subject of detailed engagement with the hospitals concerned. The elective hospitals, including those in Cork, will be no different. A process is required on decisions on policy in the first instance, then engagement with the hospitals on that policy and engagement on implementation and timelines. I agree that when we look at the scale of what is proposed in the national development plan we need to improve the system to fast-track the delivery of these projects. There will be lessons in the reviews in this regard.