Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I again thank the Senator for raising this. The response I was given by the Minister for Health, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, does not have clear timelines in it. It does have a process. In fairness, it can be hard to predict specific timelines in each stage of the process. That has potential for delays. I will outline further in the supplementary reply I have that the proposals are significant in scale and complexity for a busy and congested hospital. When complete they will provide state-of-the-art facilities at Galway University Hospital. The approach of the capital programme oversight board will ensure the much-needed capital investment in Galway will be based on current and future population demand and reflect integrated service capacity needs. It will also ensure the practical delivery of investment in Galway is achievable, affordable and represents value for money. There are important principles for the delivery of the capital infrastructure funded under the national development plan. The proposals for the ED, women and children's block and the cancer centre are in excess of €200 million and must meet the requirements of new infrastructural guidelines put in place under the public spending code in December 2023.

The work that is under way by the project team oversight board will ensure that robust business cases are developed to support proposals and enable the project to progress to the next stages of the development process. It must be subject to independent external review and validation before Government consent can be sought to proceed to developing the final business case and advancing the design and statutory planning process for the proposals involved. Again, I thank Senator Kyne for raising this and I will bring back the points he raised specifically to the Minister, Deputy Stephen Donnelly.