Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I certainly will go back to the Minister and relay to him the concerns raised by Deputy Dillon. Departmental officials are considering all available opportunities to improve on the pace of delivery of capital health projects. This process is currently underway and includes consideration of the use of modern methods of construction to deliver rapid build.

In March this year changes to the public spending code aimed at enhancing National Development Plan, NDP, delivery were introduced. These changes seek to streamline the appraisal and approval of major projects, with infrastructural guidelines due to issue shortly.

As Deputy Dillon will be aware, a five-year allocation out to 2025 of €5.65 billion has been provided to the Department of Health as part of the review of the NDP to support projects and programmes throughout the country. As everyone here understands, the early stages of all capital projects are the slowest. Once construction starts, it generally happens very quickly. That said, I will certainly bring Deputy Dillon's concerns back to the Minister. We are facing into the winter again now and the last thing we want to see is patients, particularly older people, on trolleys.

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