Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

As I said earlier, the HSE is now working through the planning phase for the new elective hospital in Cork. The Department of Health will consider the plans at decision gate 2 in the autumn before giving approval to proceed to tender. As the Deputy will appreciate, there are many complex factors involved in an infrastructure project of this size. The HSE's detailed planning will give a better understanding of the timeline for the work. I assure the Deputy we are working to get the hospitals built and up and running as soon as possible. As I said earlier, we are expecting the elective hospitals to receive their first patients in 2027. This is a priority for the Minister. He happened to mention to me that he had a meeting during the week on this issue. He is anxious to get progress quickly. We know the early stages of procurement, planning and design can take a long time but we are trying to expedite those as much as possible.

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