Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

If the Tánaiste has difficulties understanding the replies, as I do, then that tells us something. It is time for leadership. An elective hospital came from an options appraisal. It was never exclusive to the plan for a new hospital on the Merlin Park site. It was to be step 1 in the phase. If the accident and emergency department is better suited to the new hospital in Merlin Park, so be it, but let us stop the fáinne fí ag dul ar aghaidh agus ar aghaidh gan aon chiall. Tá daoine ag cailleadh muiníne as an gcóras. We are losing all confidence in the system.

The accident and emergency department went up four or five floors in the planner's imagination and it came back down to two floors to incorporate the maternity unit overhead, which is a good idea, but it seems that the timespan for that is almost the same as the timespan for a new hospital at Merlin Park University Hospital, if we go by the options appraisal presented to us in the audiovisual room. There has been a spat between two of the Tánaiste's colleagues, with one accusing the other of delaying it. It is unacceptable. We want a new hospital for Galway. We want a timeline. We want clarification about the emergency department. We want no more obfuscation.

See this speech in context