Seán Haughey (Dublin North Central, Fianna Fail)

——and the development of outreach physiotherapy, warfarin and surgical outpatient clinics have been developed for the west and east Clare areas. The Health Service Executive has advised that Horwath Consulting Ireland in association with Teamwork Management Services are undertaking, on behalf of the executive, a strategic review of acute hospital services in the mid-west.

Future priorities, including the development of services at Ennis, will be guided by this review. The executive advises that the review will be completed shortly.

On the issue of the Health Service Executive capital plan, I should add that in drawing up its capital plan, the executive is required to prioritise the projects to be progressed within its overall capital funding allocation. The executive has been finalising its capital plan over recent weeks on this basis. A revised draft of the plan has now been completed and has just been made available to the Department of Health and Children, for consideration and approval in the normal way. The draft capital plan reflects the executive's commitments and priorities. The executive is currently reviewing a number of options to enable it to progress further capital projects over the coming years and proposals in this regard are awaited by the Department of Health and Children. The capital plan will be published as a whole upon approval. It is not productive to release information about the status of individual projects in advance.

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