Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We are looking at modular builds. My view is that the capital process is not working; the capital process is broken. There are internal processes within the HSE and processes between the Department of Health and the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform. There are far too many layers and far too many people who can say “No” who need to say “Yes”. As an example, I was checking in recently on a very modest project that I sanctioned a year and a half ago which still has not happened. I got a note to say it had been through four separate committees and was working its way to the board for a review, on a piece of healthcare infrastructure that should have taken a matter of months to sanction. I am working with the Department of Health, the HSE and across Government to call this out. The current process is not working for patients or for our healthcare professionals, so we need to substantially overhaul it to be able to make these decisions quicker - either yes or no – and then drive on with the build. As I said, we are looking at modular build approaches right across the board in terms of surgical hubs and new bed blocks. The Deputy rightly referenced that University Hospital Limerick put in its new oncology suite in four months during Covid.

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