Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

What will need to see is pressure taken off the emergency department and we need that modular building. I am asking the Taoiseach for his intervention on this. He is correct that the second modular building at the hospital was to facilitate the relocation of the outpatient department and provide those ten additional single beds to replace some of the beds lost to Covid reconfiguration. This project was to be completed as part of the 2020-21 winter initiative. These beds will not be available until this summer. As the Taoiseach said, a 50-bed ward block is being constructed at Portiuncula University Hospital. This is thanks to the intervention of the then Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, on my behalf. Sadly, these are only replacement beds. What we need to see at the hospital is more beds. Again at my instigation, provision has been made to facilitate a further 50-bed ward block at the hospital. I ask the Taoiseach that plans be expedited to proceed with this extension while the builders are on-site.

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