Frank Feighan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The National Rehabilitation Hospital in Dún Laoghaire is in major need of redevelopment. There have been extensive discussions over many years on the building of a new hospital on the site. Unfortunately, the economic downturns of the 1980s and 2008 have prevented the project getting off the ground. In the intervening years, the waiting list at the National Rehabilitation Hospital has grown longer. We are talking here about patients with spinal and brain injuries who are waiting for life-changing treatments. What is making the situation worse is the fact that the hospital is not operating at full capacity due to 12 bed closures earlier this year. It is an unacceptable situation which must be resolved as a matter of urgency.

On a more positive note, I am glad to see the wheels have started to turn on the new hospital earmarked for the site. Last October, the Taoiseach, Deputy Varadkar, and the Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, turned the sod to mark the commencement of phase 1 of the new hospital development. As people have said, phase 1 includes the provision of 120 new single bed en suite rooms while phase 2 will provide for the relocation of all existing therapies and support facilities to a new, modern development to serve the new 120 bed hospital. Phase 3 will include the completion of a 235 bed hospital. While there is a great deal of work to be done, the sooner the project can move to phase 3, the better it will be for all concerned.

I am very encouraged also by the major progress on an €8 million medical rehabilitation unit at Roscommon University Hospital. It is a capital project on which I have strongly campaigned and delivered over recent years. We must remember that the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Dún Laoghaire is the only comprehensive rehabilitation facility in the Republic of Ireland for patients with physical and cognitive impairments.When the stand-alone rehabilitation unit at Roscommon University Hospital is built, it will relieve pressure on existing services and waiting times at the National Rehabilitation Hospital, NRH, in Dún Laoghaire and allow patients to be treated in their communities. The ten-bed unit in Roscommon will operate as a satellite centre of the National Rehabilitation Hospital and under its auspices. From a geographical perspective, Roscommon hospital's central location is ideal for this development as it is accessible from the west and Dublin. The development will create 25 jobs initially and up to 50 jobs when all phases are complete. I am pleased to note the project is at design stage and I look forward to its completion in the not too distant future. We hear a great deal about decentralisation. The new rehabilitation unit will be an important facility for the west and it cannot come soon enough for both Dún Laoghaire and Roscommon.