Seán Kyne (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

That would be a first if we were kept informed as we are not being kept informed. In fact, the information that we got came through a colleague in Cork. There seems to be some surprise that I was given access to this information and that I am now raising these concerns, which I have raised locally as well.

The Minister of State referred to a draft preliminary business case, site specificity and choosing the site. That is going backwards because it seemed to have been acknowledged that the site would be at Merlin Park if there were to be an elective hospital built or perhaps we are talking about the Galway Airport site but who knows. We seem to be going backwards if that is the case.

We need to keep the pressure on. Galway University Hospitals are for the west. They cover Sligo, Leitrim and Donegal as well. The west and Galway deserve the best and as good as anywhere else in the country. I ask the Minister of State to keep the pressure on in his Department to provide some certainty on healthcare plans for Galway. We have heard rumours and speculation; we need certainty about the Department of Health's future healthcare plans.