Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

No decision at this stage has been made by the Government in relation to an elective hospital in the mid-west. It is open for consideration. I do not think it is a bad idea at all. I am realistic about it because I know how long it takes, believe me, to get a hospital through design and planning and then built. Realistically, it would take six years. In the meantime, the mid-west region has a new private hospital that will soon be under construction quite soon. That might be useful to us for public patients to access through the National Treatment Purchase Fund. We also have Nenagh General Hospital, St. John's Hospital, Ennis General Hospital and Croom Orthopaedic Hospital. As Deputy Lowry knows, there has been investment in Croom to provide 24 more beds. The solution for the mid-west might be extended and better use of the existing hospitals in Ennis, Nenagh and Croom, and the use of the private hospital, rather than putting everything into an elective hospital which we might not see until the end of this decade.

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