Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)

I genuinely believe, like the Deputy does, that the master plan has the potential to be a game-changer for the health service in Galway and the western region. I am also taken, from a policy point of view, with the division of acute and elective services. That is how we address the challenges that patients and clinicians experience with overcrowding and access times. We all say our health service is great when you get into it. We need to improve the ways of getting into it and decoupling acute emergency care from elective care is a game-changer. It is a Sláintecare direction and the Saolta group in University Hospital Galway has done a huge amount of work to prepare for that.

The Minister for Health is passionate about delivering on elective hospitals, one of which is earmarked for Galway. I am pleased to hear the Deputy use the word "investment" because we talk a lot about how much things cost. This is an investment in people's health and health reform because capital can be a huge reform enabler for our health service. The decisions will be taken under the national development plan next week.

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