Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The people of Cork have been waiting over a decade for their new hospital. Site selection for the hospital was four years late. The Government had said the hospital would be open this year but now says it will not be fully operational until 2028. It has taken over a year to appoint a design team, so we have had missed target after missed target while people in Cork and the Munster region desperately need healthcare. Hospitals in Cork and across the region, as the Minister knows, are under massive pressure. Tens of thousands of people are on waiting lists. Elective surgeries at University Hospital Kerry, for example, were cancelled for three whole months. Can the Minister explain all of this delay, and why it is that now we learn construction will not commence until 2026 for this much-needed hospital for Cork and Munster?

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