Michelle Mulherin (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State. We all know that the planning process takes a while but we need to get down to the nuts and bolts of designing this extension. The Minister of State has pointed out the complexities of it but it has been well appraised. We need it; we needed it yesterday. I am mindful of the constraints on capital expenditure that existed in the past. I would like to make a significant point. I have mentioned University Hospital Galway, which serves counties Mayo, Galway and Roscommon. The blockages in Mayo University Hospital are having an impact on University Hospital Galway. Patients, especially oncology patients, need to be discharged, released or transferred to Mayo University Hospital. If there is no capacity in Mayo, it blocks up the centre of excellence in Galway. It is a circular situation. There is a blockage somewhere. We should have moved past the appraisal stage. We need to get on with it. We need to get the design going to overcome the complexities and to get a hospital that functions better than the hospital we have at the moment.