Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will take Senator Boyhan up on his invitation to visit the NRH. It is something I have wanted to do for a while. I have been there in a personal rather than an official capacity on a number of occasions but I would welcome the opportunity to officially visit and meet with staff, management and patients there. I will arrange for that to happen in the coming weeks. Until I have established the facts, it is not something on which I wish to comment on the record but the point the Senator made about the offer of lands and the trust is a very important one. To be very clear, I expect any organisation that has signed an agreement to provide lands to absolutely fulfil that agreement to the letter and the spirit of it. I will ask the HSE to examine it and I will revert to the Senator on that.

The point the Senator makes is fair. What we are doing is progressing the development of the NRH. However, this should not be the end of the plans to develop. There is significant potential and scope to do more. My priority is to get on with the process of putting in place a 120 replacement bed ward block which will provide much better facilities for the staff and the patients. It will lead to better patient outcomes and further dignity for patients who spend an awful lot of time there and deserve a much more modern fit-for-purpose building. It will also provide a sports hall, a hydrotherapy unit and an ability to provide support therapies from a paediatric rehabilitation position that are not currently supplied.

I agree with the Deputy that this is a major capital project and we need to get it under way. I have outlined to the House the timeline for that. We then need to be more ambitious as well and ask, "What next?". This hospital carries out work that transforms lives and gives people back their lives. It is a project that we should constantly be adding to. I see this capital project as a very important step but not the finality in terms of the potential of the hospital.