Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

-----in Cork and in Kerry as well. He might send me the details regarding them. The Government is very clear on what it intends to do. We do not have a health service that is the appropriate size in terms of meeting the needs of our population. That means we will need more beds in the health service and that is the reason we approved, as part of Project Ireland 2040, the delivery of 2,600 additional hospital beds last Friday, which will see more beds go to Cork and Kerry. As we have also approved a new acute hospital in regard to Kerry and Cork, as well as an elective-only hospital for Cork, the South/South West Hospital Group's capacity will significantly expand.

We are taking a number of interim measures in the meantime, including looking at the front-loading of beds. We will open 300 new beds between the start of this winter and this year as well. We are increasing the capacity of the health service. It will take some time to get to where we want to be but we now have a very clear roadmap.

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