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

I thank the Deputy. As he knows, the Minister for Health is with us this afternoon and will certainly speak on it later. We will work together to do anything we can to speed up increasing capacity in Portiuncula University Hospital, which is all the more necessary since the reconfiguring of Roscommon University Hospital and given the fact that Galway University Hospital is so congested.

As I mentioned, the outpatient department is being relocated. This will provide a new 12-bed ward. Work is ongoing with the design team on a prefab extension to the emergency department to give it more space. We are awaiting an updated draft of the plan for the prefab so it can be expanded.

We mentioned the 50-bed block earlier. It will open next year. The development of a further 50-bed ward would involve significant reprovision and reconfiguration of the campus and, so far, no capital submission has been made on this. It is something we are open to.

The population of the region is only going to increase and get older, and it is unquestionable that we will need further capacity in addition to the 50-bed block that is being built now.

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