Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Finally, in the last seven seconds, the Minister told me that he is going to start it in the second quarter. When in the second quarter? When is it going to be finished? What are the three sites? I understand Letterkenny is one of them. I ask that with frustration, having read the reports. The Minister was there at the launch of the reports. There were three forewords and I have read the whole report. The data from this research, building on the research of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, clearly lays out in stark terms for the first time the challenges facing it.

The previous research in 2017 - and this was by Mr. Paddy Kenny - showed an impending surgical workforce crisis in model 3 hospitals, which deliver about 50% of general surgical activity nationally. This second report builds on that report, and so we have Professor Brian Kinirons shining a light on the fragility of the model 3 network, and that the model 3 network has more non-permanent posts and more consultants with general registration than in the model 4 network. There is any amount of facts and figures. The specific question again - if the Minister could address it more specifically - is when is it going to start in the second quarter? I am over time so I will come back.

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