Ms Helen Shortt:

I thank the Senator. All the services needed for Barnahus South are in place but in Cork, there is the sexual assault treatment unit in one place, there is the forensic medical suite in St. Finbarr's Hospital and there is a child and family centre on the St. Finbarr's Hospital site. I use the term "virtual" because the process that will be adopted by the various agencies is to collaborate and to work together even though they do not currently have a physical location for everybody to work together in. They have done that very well, because everybody has been involved in setting up the Barnahus, understanding what the model is and collaborating together in the design of their new building. We are waiting for approval of the HSE's capital plan. The building that will be Barnahus South is in the plan. Once that is approved, we would hope the HSE estates people, working with the Tusla estates people, will move forward very quickly on that because the team who are involved in Barnahus south have done all the preliminary design for it.