Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is very necessary that this piece of infrastructure be provided. As the Deputy is well aware and as he has seen at first hand, University Hospital Galway is a centre of excellence which has an enormous reach in terms of the different medical facilities provided. I assume the Deputy saw the new building that is under construction and which has been awaited for a very long time. He is also aware that the capital programme provides for a mid-term review. I cannot say what stage the design of the replacement unit for the emergency department is at, but I will find out. I was in the hospital recently, not in the emergency department but to visit a patient. Clearly, it is a major university teaching hospital, but it is a facility that has served its time and in which staff are working under extraordinary pressure. I accept that the emergency department has to be replaced.

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