Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank both Deputies. The first thing to state very clearly is this is being prioritised and moved forward. I brought a memo to Government recently. We got agreement on the elective hospitals, including for Cork. One of the asks, and this is why I said it earlier, was that the proposal that came to me from the group that reviewed this had a very material change to it. As I said, the proposal I got was for day case only. Through extensive consultation at a political and clinical level, we changed that. It is a very material change. The business case, therefore, had to be updated.

I am delighted to be able to share with the Deputies that this preliminary business case has come back into the Department. It came back in on Monday morning and is now being assessed by Department officials. That will then go to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. We will see what it has to say but it is hoped it will come sign off on it and then we can move very quickly into design and tender. We have to get going on this. The State is not good at building hospitals quickly. In fact, we are very bad at it. We obviously have to go through all the processes in terms of protecting public money, but we have got to move on this.

Both Deputies asked about the site. The short answer is I have a recommendation on a site but no site has been agreed. A Government decision has not been taken on a particular site. That is what the business case is going to address. I have discussed the issue at length with many Deputies and colleagues here and with clinicians in Cork. As the Deputies will know, probably better than I do, there are very strongly held views on multiple different sites. It would not be appropriate for me just yet to say which site is likely the one on which I want a final recommendation based on inpatients and day cases. I would then very much like to share with the House the preferred site as quickly as possible.

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