Derek Nolan (Galway West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his response. It should be put on the record that an enormous amount of work has been done by hospital management, together with hospital staff, to make the best of that facility. One of the ideas put forward in the interim as a stop-gap measure, as the Minister put it, is to have an independent external person - a fresh pair of eyes - come into the emergency department to see what we can do in the meantime in terms of moving services out, looking at the way we do triage, looking at the way we allocate nurses, advance nurse practitioners and so forth, with a view to using that space in the best way possible. As the Minister said, where it is at the moment is simply not good enough.

The cost benefit analysis was submitted on 19 October 2013. That is a year ago, which is a very long time in which to consider and debate a cost benefit analysis. First, can the Minister give me a commitment that he will contact the Health Service Executive and get an answer on the option it intends to go for? Does it intend to go for a new two storey or six storey building?

Second, given that what we are talking about is not a luxury but a clinical need and that we are not meeting key requirements for emergency departments in terms of medicinal programmes, patient streaming, infection control and so forth, can we be assured that the infrastructure we so badly need is put as a priority for the HSE and that the 66,000 people who attend Galway University Hospital emergency department every year will not go into a substandard facility but one that is fit for purpose? Will the HSE make that a priority?

Third, would it be possible for the Minister to come to the emergency department and meet with the staff nurses? Ministers frequently attend conferences in Galway and it might be easy for him to come and meet the staff for 20 minutes or half an hour. It might put in his head the absolute requirement for a new building and to influence the capital project and make sure we get this as a priority capital project for the HSE.

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