Seán Kyne (Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister of State for travelling up to the Chamber today, but I regret no one is here from the Department of Health to address this Commencement matter. University Hospital Galway, UHG, is a model 4 hospital providing 24-7 acute surgery, acute medicine and critical care services for Galway and the region. I acknowledge the front-line staff and management who have been operating under difficult conditions because of the impact of Covid-19 for nearly a year now. The staff in the hospital, and especially the accident and emergency department, have managed to provide those services for many decades now.

In December 2015, during Leaders' Questions, the then Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, proclaimed in the Dáil that "the emergency department at University College Galway [was] not fit for purpose". In February 2017, funding was provided for the design phase of a new accident and emergency department. The project was included in Project Ireland 2040. During a visit to University Hospital Galway in September 2018 by the then Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, we were told by the Saolta University Health Care Group that the planning application would be lodged before Christmas of that year. It was then to be lodged by February 2019. We were then assured that the options appraisal, which was the evaluation of the best use of lands, with a new UHG in Merlin Park, was not going to delay the application.

We were assured that process was not going to delay the application, and that we would not be waiting for that options appraisal to be published before a planning application was lodged. Unfortunately, that did not happen. The options appraisal was published, and thankfully it did state that an accident and emergency department should be proceeded with on the site of UHG. The planning application, however, had still not been lodged. The Saolta group's design team had designed a seven-storey building, with five storeys for the accident and emergency department and the top two floors for paediatrics and maternity services. It was recommended that the original application should go with a shell and core design, where the top two floors would not be fully designed. They would be allowed to go to planning, and then be designed later.Then that changed, which was positive as they were progressing the top two floors, but that caused a further delay. They were told to do a full fit-out design on the project and that led to another delay in the project.

When I raised this matter with the Minister for Health at a committee meeting in early November, he provided me with information that had previously been provided in response to a parliamentary question tabled by my colleague, Deputy Dillon. The Minister said, "This answer is not satisfactory for the Senator and I am, therefore, going to ask for an additional note on an indicative timeline as to when this will be done, as this is the question he asked, and it needs to be answered." That question still has not been answered. Anything I say is certainly not a personal comment about the Minister but comes from sheer frustration about the abject delays in a project that everybody needs and wants. The staff do Trojan work. The patients absolutely need this project, which is being delayed not by a lack of funding or by Government procrastination, but by the inability of the Saolta University Health Care Group to lodge a planning application. The group engaged with the city council about a bus corridor, which was welcome, but that delayed the project. The shell and core design also delayed the project. Everything seems to have delayed a vital new emergency department. The existing department was described in the Dáil, by the Taoiseach, as being not fit for purpose over five years ago. I am absolutely frustrated about the lack of progress in lodging a planning application, never mind all of the rest that has to be done to ensure there are tender and construction documents, etc. I look forward to the Minister of State's reply.

Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Senator for raising this matter and giving me an opportunity to outline to the House the position regarding the new emergency department at University Hospital Galway.

University Hospital Galway provides regional services for a wide range of specialties that serve a catchment area of approximately 1 million people along the west from Donegal to north Tipperary. University Hospital Galway is a model 4 hospital that provides 24-7 acute surgery, acute medicine and critical care. This project for a new emergency department at University Hospital Galway, which is part of a larger development incorporating maternity and paediatric services, is included in the capital plan for 2021. Approval has been granted to complete a temporary extension to the emergency department to provide additional accommodation. This includes segregated waiting areas, segregated treatment areas, isolation rooms, additional resuscitation spaces and additional support accommodation to take account of new requirements to treat Covid-19 patients, and improved infection control and prevention requirements for the emergency department. Externally, this also includes enabling works by way of road and car park reconfigurations, and utilities and drainage diversions, that are all located to the east of the main block of University Hospital Galway.

The temporary emergency department extension will be a single-storey building with a rooftop plantroom and will be connected to the main hospital block at the existing emergency department entrance. It is expected that this project will be completed in early 2022. The temporary emergency department project, and associated works, will serve as an enabling works project for the proposed permanent emergency department by helping to clear the site.

The main emergency department women's and children's development at University Hospital Galway is a complex project and is in the early stages of design progression. This project is of significant scale and must progress through the stages outlined in the public spending code. The design team was requested to assess the feasibility of fully developing the women's and children's element of the block at the same time as the development of the lower emergency department floors. This would result in the completion of the full development as one project. This feasibility report has been completed and has been considered by the HSE nationally.

No date has yet been set for the planning application for the main building. A few enabling works projects are required to clear the site before the main building can go ahead. The design team has had pre-planning meetings with the local authority on two of the enabling works projects. Other site enabling works are ongoing in preparation for the main emergency department women's and children's block development, including road and services realignment.All capital development proposals must progress through a number of approval stages in line with the public spending code. The delivery of capital projects is a dynamic process and is subject to successful completion of various approvals, which can impact on the timeline for delivery.

Seán Kyne (Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister of State for the response on behalf of the Department of Health. While there was a good deal of information in it, the salient point is that no date has yet been set for the planning application for the main building. Despite Saolta University Health Care Group telling the then Minister, Deputy Harris, in September 2018 that the application would be lodged before the following Christmas, there is as yet no date for the main application for the building. Temporary works are being carried out which will be completed in early 2022. The way things are going, that will be 2023. Of course it is a complex project, and it is stated that it is in the early stages of design progression. People were talking about it and showing us the designs years ago. A great show is put on when Ministers visit. Saolta University Health Care Group said it would lodge a planning application before Christmas 2018, but it still has not lodged it and is nowhere near doing so, by all accounts.

I am greatly concerned by the response from the Department. I am not getting personal with the Minister of State, but I am extremely frustrated by the abject failure to deliver the first phase of this project, which is the planning permission.

Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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I hear the Senator's frustration and anger on behalf of his constituents and the people of Galway and the west of Ireland with this ongoing issue and the lack of a coherent timeline. I will communicate his frustration on behalf of the people he represents to the Minister, the Department and the HSE.

I also echo the Senator's words of thanks and appreciation to the front-line workers in Galway and, indeed, throughout the country. All of us must continue to express our thanks for, and appreciation of, the hard and dedicated work these people do when they turn up every day on behalf of the health of the nation.