Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for his question. In line with best international practice, it is the policy of the Government and Oireachtas, as set out in the national maternity strategy, that stand-alone maternity hospitals will be co-located with acute adult hospitals. We should not have stand-alone maternity hospitals anymore.

Project Ireland 2040, our capital plan, provides €10.9 billion for health capital developments across the country, including funding to relocate the hospitals.

The Government is fully committed to the maternity hospital projects. The new maternity hospital at the St. Vincent's University Hospital campus will be the first of these to be developed. The transfers of the Coombe Women and Infants University Hospital, the Rotunda and University Maternity Hospital, Limerick, will follow.

The relocation of the National Maternity Hospital at Holles Street to the St. Vincent's University Hospital campus is progressing. A number of enabling works contracts in regard to the pharmacy block and the extension to the car park are in progress and are due to be completed next year. Let me be very clear, however, that the tender documents for the maternity hospital development will not be issued until such time as a legal framework to protect the State's significant investment has been agreed. I have heard much commentary on this in recent days. The Government's position is that it will not press "Go" on the full project until all the outstanding issues are resolved.

The relocation of the Rotunda to the Connolly Hospital campus is one of the key infrastructure projects to be funded. It is important that we carefully plan all projects to meet population health needs and achieve value for money. This work is ongoing. I have engaged with the Master of the Rotunda, RCSI hospitals and the HSE on the relocation of the Rotunda to Connolly Hospital. This included a meeting with these parties in July of this year.

A site for the proposed maternity hospital is identified in the St. James's Hospital campus master plan, and the new children's hospital design has allowed for the required operational links and clinical adjacencies with both maternity and adult hospitals to be provided. Trilocation for the Coombe will facilitate the transfer of critically ill mothers from the maternity hospital to St. James's.

Project briefs will be progressed in 2020 for the relocation of the Rotunda, Coombe and Limerick hospitals to acute hospital campuses. I acknowledge something the Deputy called for in the capital plan. We have now provided funding for the project briefs to be progressed for each of the projects in 2020. All our maternity hospital projects are required to progress through a number of approval stages, in line with the public spending code, which includes appraisal, planning, design and tender stages before a firm timeline or funding requirement can be established.

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