Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy knows as well as I do what happened. A procurement process went wrong because of a difference of view between the company involved and management. It fell apart and has now been terminated. It needs to be replaced as quickly as possible with a new process to deliver the infrastructure as quickly as it can allow. In the meantime one of the theatres is working, but the throughput is not what it would be if both theatres were up and running. I will, of course, pass on not only the Deputy's frustration but also that of the House generally on the issue to the Minister and the Department. We cannot simply bypass all procedures. There is a tendering and procurement process that the State needs to abide by. Because the last one fell apart, it needs to put a new process in place as quickly as possible. It also needs to finalise the planning permission because the application was only lodged in December. My understanding is further information has been requested and needs to be delivered by the applicant. In many ways, it is not possible to defend the timelines here and I am not attempting to do so. I will exert appropriate pressure to make sure the timelines are shortened to have the project concluded as quickly as possible. It should not be rocket science to put in place modular units to respond to a leak in a roof and some other issues that have emerged since September 2017. We need to conclude the project as speedily as possible.

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