Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)

Yes. Clearly, whatever services are provided there will be for all patients. There will be no question of it being restricted to private patients. However, it may well be that local general practitioners, in conjunction with the HSE or others, may decide to provide a primary care facility there. There may be an interest in using the current tax breaks to provide the capital costs of the community hospital and the State would then obviously resource and operate it, or certainly buy services. We need to be innovative in the way we develop the facility. I hope it can happen quickly and that is the intention.

See this speech in context