Colm Burke (Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister of State for taking the time to be here today. I very much appreciate it. My Commencement matter relates to the proposal in the national development plan, Project Ireland 2040, for a new hospital in Cork. The priority is not long fingering it and leaving it as just a proposal. I want action to be taken. The population of Cork has increased from 410,000 to 542,000 in the past 30 years. It will continue to grow under Project Ireland 2040. Cork city and county will be the fastest growing area of the country. Therefore, there is a need for improved medical facilities and one of those facilities is a new hospital. The first job is identifying a suitable site and then starting and proceeding through the planning process. The first priority is identifying a site. What action has the Department and the HSE taken with regard to progressing that matter?

Jim Daly (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Senator for the opportunity to address the Seanad on the proposals in the recently published national development plan with regard to a new hospital in Cork. The health service capacity review, which was published on 23 January 2018, identifies additional capacity requirements in our health service and also makes it clear that, in the absence of major reforms, the demand on our hospital system in particular will become unsustainable. The review clearly states that, together with reformed models of care, we need extra capacity across acute hospitals and primary and social care. It concludes that acute hospital bed capacity will need to increase by 2,600. I am delighted that the very significant increases in capital funding in the health service as a result of the national development plan will allow us to deliver on this capacity as well as on a range of other health capital projects and programmes across acute, primary and social care.

Under the national development plan, capital funding for our health services will be 165% higher for the next ten years than it was for the past ten years. This is a sea change commitment to capital investment in our health services. A total of €10.9 billion over the next ten years provides a real, long-term opportunity to improve our services, drive down waiting lists, increase bed capacity, reform pathways of care, and modernise how we deliver health services. The new hospital for Cork is one of the major investment projects promised in the national development plan.

It is important to recognise that the national development plan is a long-term plan. It provides for a large number of health developments throughout the country, including both national programmes and individual projects across acute, primary and social care. Many of its proposals are at an early stage of development, including the new hospital for Cork. Further planning to progress the investment in a new hospital for Cork will now be undertaken. This will include full evaluation of local capacity and infrastructural needs as well as a framework for decision-making on the optimal location from a clinical and population needs perspective. For all projects, we must ensure that we carefully plan the use of all capital funding using robust methods of appraisal, assessment and selection to meet population needs and achieve value for money. In this way, the unprecedented health capital investment of €10.9 billion over the next ten years will allow the health services to provide the necessary infrastructure and equipment to support the Government's vision for a high-quality, safe, accessible and sustainable health care system into the future.

Colm Burke (Fine Gael)
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Unfortunately, the reply that was furnished to the Minister of State by the Department and the HSE does not actually deal with the question. The question is quite specific. I just asked what process has been put in place to identify the site. It is important that we establish a group or that a process is clearly identified to identify this site and move forward with this project. I suggest that I be allowed to raise this issue again to allow the Minister of State to get further information so that we can find out whether this is just on paper at the moment, whether some process has started, if one has not started, when it will start, and the target date for identifying a site. This is important information for me because I do not want to be raising the same matter in 12 months with nothing done.

Jim Daly (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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I appreciate the Senator's sentiments and that my response was rather vague on detail at this stage. If the Cathaoirleach is happy to allow the matter to be raised again in the House, I am happy to come back and get more detail for the Senator. I have some knowledge of it as a Minister of State from the area and had some discussions with the hospital group on the future of this hospital before the national development plan was announced. One thing I remember being struck by at that meeting was that one of the difficulties and challenges faced by the HSE, and I appreciate that this is a separate debate, was having to deal with two separate local authorities when discussing issues of infrastructure, sites and support services. Be that as it may, there is nothing we can do about that in this forum. I am happy to get further information for the Senator on the specifics of the process involved in identifying a site.