Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 10 April 2019

Select Committee on Health

Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 38 - Health (Further Revised)

Photo of Simon HarrisSimon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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They are decisions for the Government to make collectively on the recommendation of the Minister, Deputy Donohoe. The Government has not taken a decision in that regard so it would be imprudent of me to speculate, but I expect that the Government will adopt a common-sense approach like we tried to adopt this year. However, these are decisions for the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, and he will make them in due course. I am endeavouring, working with his Department, to see if we can publish a two or three-year iteration for the capital budget in health. That would be very important because it would allow us to get a number of projects under way. There are many projects we want to get under way in health where the expenditure at the start is quite small, such as for tendering, design and planning, but it must be done when getting ready to build the project, whether that is an extension to a hospital or a new primary care centre. I will be better able to answer some of those questions in the coming weeks.