Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is recognised that the current elective care capacities do not meet current demand and there will be even greater demand for elective care services in the future. Incremental refinements to the current public hospital network will not, I think we can all agree, be sufficient to meet this demand by themselves. The electives proposal has guided the work of the elective hospitals oversight group, under the governance of the HSE and the Department of Health. The development of three elective care centres will require significant infrastructural investment and therefore the oversight group is following the process outlined in the updated public spending code. This sets out value for money requirements for the evaluation, planning and management of large public investment projects, that is, those costing in excess of €100 million. I think we can all agree these will be investments exceeding €100 million.

A preliminary business case for the new elective facilities, including in Cork, is currently being reviewed within the Department of Health. If it is technically compliant and approved by the Department of Expenditure and Reform, the preliminary business case, PBC, will then be further developed by that Department. If approved, it is envisaged a memorandum for Government will be brought by me, seeking approval to proceed to the next stage.

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