Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for taking this Topical Issue on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Donnelly. As the Minister of State knows, St. Stephen's Hospital in Glanmire, County Cork, is the location for one of three new elective hospitals in the country, with the others in Galway and Dublin. We finally got word approximately six months ago that Glanmire was the preferred site in Cork. That process took far too long. At the time, the then Taoiseach, Deputy Micheál Martin, stated that he wanted to take this by the scruff of the neck and get on with the job. To be fair to him, he has repeatedly stressed and emphasised that delivery is a vital part of what we are trying to do. We need this facility. That is well recognised. It will have the capacity for almost 180,000 procedures per year, once built and operational. Most importantly, these elective hospitals are designed to take the pressure off our overburdened emergency departments. We have been talking about this elective hospital in Cork for six years. People want to see action. They want to see design teams appointed and on the ground. They want to see plans drawn up and work commencing as quickly as possible.

I understand that at a recent meeting of the Joint Committee on Health, the Minister, Deputy Donnelly, confirmed that a design team had, in fact, been appointed and is working on a detailed design. He concluded that he expects we could be in a position to move to tender by the final quarter of this year, with planning secured, detailed design done and signed off. Those were the words attributed to the Minister. That is obviously welcome but at the same committee meeting, the Minister acknowledged that the process heretofore had taken too long, mainly on account of having to adhere strictly to the public spending code. He said he hopes the process could be sped up, where possible. He concluded that his Department and the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform would work together to find additional opportunities to speed up the process. Will the Minister of State advise as to what additional opportunities the Minister was referencing and outline how he proposes to expedite the process?

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