Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy McAuliffe for the question. I acknowledge his ongoing advocacy for Cappagh hospital, which is our national orthopaedic hospital. I have had the opportunity to visit Cappagh on several occasions and I am very strongly supportive of the hospital staff and the work they do. They needed more money. There has been a significant increase in investment but I would like to talk as well about the further investment that is needed.

Since 2019, funding for Cappagh has increased by nearly €50 million. That is about a 27% increase in funding, which is very welcome. What that has allowed the hospital to do is to significantly increase the staff, by nearly a quarter, so it is at 528 staff now. We all know the essential work that they are doing. Cappagh has worked on its overall master plan. It launched Cappagh Kids some time back, which is an incredible service as well. I was out with them recently enough. I believe the project the Deputy is referring to is the master plan that Cappagh has put forward for 76 single-occupancy rooms in one block, ten high-dependency unit beds and initially three operating theatres, which would very significantly increase surgical capacity by about 60%. I am fully supportive of this. After I met Cappagh some time ago on this project, I contacted the HSE immediately and said this project needed to be prioritised and it must happen. Our orthopaedic waiting lists are too long. I would argue that probably the single most important thing we can do to permanently reduce the waiting lists for orthopaedics and make sure people can get the care they need I would argue is this investment in Cappagh. We have seen in Croom, County Limerick, the small orthopaedic facility there has had a huge increase in the number of patients they are seeing with that investment.

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