Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I agree with the Deputy regarding Bantry Hospital. The Minister of State, Deputy Daly, is due to meet management of the hospital on 2 December. The Deputy is correct that we need to continue to make that hospital busier and to invest more in it, which is our intention. She is also correct that there is a need for more capacity in Cork generally. That is why we are funding a new elective hospital for Cork. I have received correspondence from the hospital group on a proposed site for that hospital and I hope to be in a position to make an announcement on it early in the new year so we can get on with delivering this new hospital.

I do not find this situation acceptable. Nobody finds it acceptable that mothers, fathers, grannies and grandads or any other loved ones, but particularly frail older people, have to wait around in emergency departments on trolleys. We need to do everything we can to create alternatives to our emergency departments. That is why we are investing more in general practice. In the interim, while we are trying to implement Sláintecare, the ten-year strategic plan agreed by all parties in this House, we will invest more in social care supports to get people out of hospital quicker and back into their communities, something about which the Deputy is passionate. We will continue to focus on that.

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