Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

-----or using a compulsory purchase order, the advice I have is that all of these options would carry a very significant risk of derailing this project by potentially not having it co-located at Elm Park and, at a minimum, adding many years to it.

I think we are in agreement on all of the other pieces above. Given this final piece on the ownership of the land and potentially the governance structures, colleagues are rightly looking for guarantees on the full independence of the hospital. That has been the focus of most of the contributions in this debate.

Deputy Cullinane rightly stated that he wanted to see the details. Many colleagues have said the same. I feel their frustration. I have listened carefully and taken notes on the frustration being expressed that we do not have a legal agreement in front of us, which we would all like to get into and debate. We will have that debate, but we are not in a position to do so now because there has not been Government agreement on the legal agreement yet.

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