Maureen O'Sullivan (Dublin Central, Independent)
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381. To ask the Minister for Health if he will acknowledge the tremendous work being done by an overstretched staff in the Rotunda Maternity Hospital, Dublin, and the need for urgent investment to provide a better service for patients due to increased demand, in view of the fact that the hospital is now 30% busier than it was in 2006, with practices such as newly delivered babies in the same ward as women who have suffered miscarriages now being commonplace; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43036/14]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I am always happy to acknowledge the tremendous work being done by staff in the Rotunda Hospital, and indeed all healthcare staff, and I recognise that resource pressures in recent years have impacted on staff throughout the health service. I am aware too of the difficulties with the infrastructure at the Rotunda but as the Deputy will be aware, it is intended to relocate the hospital. The 2008 KPMG Independent Review of Maternity and Gynaecology Services in the Greater Dublin Area recognised that for optimal clinical outcomes, maternity services should be co-located with adult acute services, and specifically, that the Rotunda should be moved to the Mater site, the Coombe Hospital to Tallaght Hospital and the National Maternity Hospital to St Vincent's University Hospital. With the decision to develop the new Children's Hospital at the St James's campus and the relocation of the National Maternity Hospital already underway, the previous plans in respect of the Coombe and the Rotunda must be reviewed. That review has now commenced and will be completed in early 2015.

Pending the redevelopment of the Rotunda, there is provision in the HSE's Capital Plan for upgrading the electrical distribution system, the boundary wall and the hospital mortuary. In addition, capital funding has been indented for the development of an emergency theatre and delivery suite upgrade.