Colm Burke (Cork North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The population has increased by 1.5 million in the past 20 years, or 40%, and there is a need to fast-track the delivery of medical facilities. An increase of 1.5 million people is huge. In Cork, for instance, we have planning for a new paediatric unit and there is also the issue regarding the delivery of elective hospitals. We need now to respond. As the Tánaiste said earlier, there has been an increase in the population of 97,000 in the past 12 months alone, and our health service has to respond accordingly. It is about how we can fast-track the delivery of healthcare facilities, outside of the delivery of services. We need to be able to fast-track the delivery of actual infrastructure, rather than take five or eight years to deliver it.

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