Frank Feighan (Sligo-Leitrim, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senator for raising this issue and giving me the opportunity to provide to the House an update on this project.This is part of an overall project for the replacement of a 95-bed community nursing unit, CNU, at St. Vincent's Hospital in Athy, County Kildare. The project will be completed in two phases, with the 50-bed unit to be delivered as part of the first construction phase. I thank Senator Wall for the historical analysis he gave. It is quite obvious that the Sisters of Mercy have been very fruitful and active in Athy for many generations and it is nice to see him acknowledge that. I also want to thank the Sisters of Mercy. As the Senator knows, I was in Cuan Mhuire in Athy in my capacity as Minister of State for the national drugs strategy. I thank the Sisters of Mercy for the great work they are doing.

The standard of care delivered to residents in public units is generally very high, but we recognise that many of our community hospitals are housed in buildings that are less than ideal in the modern context, although without them many older people would not have access to the care they need. It is important, therefore, that we upgrade our public bed stock. This is the aim of the capital investment programme for community nursing units. This provides a framework to allow for a programme to replace, upgrade and refurbish these care facilities as appropriate. The project is part of this programme.

Significant work was undertaken to determine the optimum schedule of projects, within the phased provision of funding, to achieve compliance and registration with the Health Information and Quality Authority, HIQA. A design team has been appointed to progress a project that will deliver a 95-bed replacement community nursing unit on this site. The design for the overall scheme of this development has been adjusted to account for learnings from Covid-19. The revised plan developed includes delivery of the project in two phases. This plan comprises initially delivering the 50-bed unit during the first stage and a 45-bed unit, including two ten-bed dementia units, during phase 2. This project is included in the capital programme for 2022. An application for planning permission is expected to be submitted in quarter 1 of 2022.

The scope of these two projects will enable older person services to decant from and vacate the protected structure building. In order to accommodate the new CNU, a number of wards will need to be demolished as part of a planned or phased decant from the old to the new unit. All capital development proposals must progress through a number of approval stages in line with the public spending code, including detailed appraisal, planning, design and procurement, before a firm timeline or funding requirement can be established.

The delivery of capital projects is a dynamic process and is subject to the successful completion of the various approval stages. The final decision to proceed with the construction of a project cannot be made until the tender process has been completed and the costings reviewed to ensure that the proposal delivers value for money and remains affordable, and that sufficient funding is available to fund the project to completion, including equipping and commissioning costs.