Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

If the Minister continued to outline what he regards as improvements, I could not argue with him but all these improvements have added to the problems at the site. While a 75-bed unit was provided, the closure of two wards meant the hospital did not receive a single extra bed. The new mental health facility has been delayed and will not open until the end of the year. It also has implications for car parking at the site. There are 40 patients on trolleys in University Hospital Galway, where the number of beds has been reduced from 812 in January 2006 to 655 at present. We have a major crisis.

The Minister referred to good planning. There has never been good planning regarding the regional hospital in Galway. It has been forced ó ghéarchéim go géarchéim - from crisis to crisis - and has never had the luxury of long-term planning, nor the support of any Government. With the exception of today, every time I have asked a question since my election almost two years ago, I have been given a list of positive developments that will make a congested site more congested. Am I to understand from the Minister's reply that by mid-2018 we will have some answer with regard to planning for a new hospital on the 150 acres available at the Merlin Park site?

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