Seán Kyne (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Ar dtús báire, gabhaim buíochas le hoifig an Chathaoirligh as ucht an deis a fháil labhairt ar an ábhar tábhachtach seo. É sin ráite, is mór is trua nach bhfuil aon duine de cheathrar Airí ón Roinn Sláinte i láthair inniu.

Tá an t-eolas is déanaí á lorg agam ar stádas an togra ar son rannóg éigeandála nua d'Ospidéal Choláiste na hOllscoile, Gaillimh. Is dea-scéal é go bhfuil an rannóg éigeandála sealadach ag feidhmiú faoi láthair, ach an faitíos atá orm ná go mbeidh an rannóg sealadach mar ionad buan mar gheall ar an moill atá ar an dtogra nua. Tá a fhios agam go bhfuil an tuairisc measúnú stráitéiseach ag an Roinn Sláinte faoi láthair, ach cén uair a cheadóidh an Roinn é le go mbeidh cead an togra a bhrú ar aghaidh go dtí an chéad chéim eile?

I welcome the Minister to the Chamber. This is a long-running saga that I have raised in the House on a number of occasions, which is the status of the application for a new emergency department in University Hospital Galway. The strategic assessment report, SAR, is presently with the Department of Health and has been since early summer. I am looking for an update on when that might be pushed along to the next step because we are still talking about the early stages on a process that has already in many people's eyes, and certainly in mine, taken far too long. We got a commitment in Galway at this time in 2018 from the then Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, that the Saolta Hospital Group had said it would lodge the planning application for a new emergency department before Christmas 2018. Here we are now in the autumn of 2022 and we are still a very long way away from the lodging of the planning application. There is huge frustration.

I welcome the fact the new temporary emergency department in Galway that has 43 beds has opened, but the concern in the community is that this will be a permanent emergency department for years to come because we are waiting so long for a new emergency department. I know the temporary emergency department has 43 bays and it will enhance privacy and dignity for people arriving at it, but there are still high numbers of people on trolleys in Galway, as evidenced in Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, INMO, trolley watch. The Department of Health could confirm this time last year that one in eight patients on trolleys in Ireland were in University Hospital Galway.

There are serious issues with the capacity in Galway. The population, like all our cities, thankfully, is growing, which will put further pressure on services. There seems to be a slowness or an inability to push this project through the various stages of public spending. I appreciate it is now a larger and more complex project because it encompasses the maternity and paediatric units as well, which is welcome. However, the inability to lodge a planning application, which has been delayed for so long and is now tied up in the public spending code and the various processes and stages of that, is very worrying. It is very concerning for people in Galway who, for a long number of years, have looked at what is an inadequate emergency department.I said to the Taoiseach when he was here before Christmas last year that he had raised this issue in 2015 in the Dáil with the then Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, and that Enda Kenny had said at the time the hospital was not fit for purpose. It still it is not fit for purpose. It is less fit for purpose than it was. Thankfully, the new temporary emergency department is open but we need to see this project pushed through the public spending code.