Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy is correct that Beaumont is one of the older national hospitals, and I think Cork University Hospital was a replication of it. I think the then Minister, Charles Haughey, decided he did not want any more new designers and he said they should just bring the plan from Beaumont to Cork, and we got a hospital much faster. They are old hospitals and they have been subject to a lot of investment since. Under the Minister’s first tranche of expanded acute bed proposals, I would have thought there might be opportunities for Beaumont. I suspect there must have been collaboration and consultation between the hospital, the HSE and the Minister in respect of that. I will talk to the Minister about it. Deputy Smith has obviously been on the ground, talking to the consultants and the hospital. I will pursue that.

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