Ciara Conway (Waterford, Labour)
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134. To ask the Minister for Health the progress to date on the 100 bed community nursing unit in St. Patrick's Hospital in County Waterford; if he will confirm that a design team has been appointed; the names of the persons on the design team; when the planning application will be made; whether money for the unit has been ringfenced as is indicated in the capital plan; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34780/15]

Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)
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The design team for the new community nursing home to replace St. Patrick's Hospital in Waterford City, was appointed in Q1 2015. The design team comprises

- Architects – Coady Partnership Architects,

- Civil and Structural Engineers – O’Connor Sutton Cronin and Associates,

- Mechanical and Electrical Engineers – Varming Consulting Engineers,

- Quantity Surveyors – O’Reilly Hyland Tierney and Associates.

As this is a major development on a campus with listed/protected buildings the HSE has had extensive consultations with the planning authorities about the new facility and the treatment of the listed/protected buildings. The purpose of the consultation process is to ensure a successful planning application in so far as in possible.A design review has been completed recently.At this stage it is expected that the planning application could be submitted before year end 2015.

The HSE has identified this Waterford city location as a priority location for a new community nursing home. Nevertheless as with all capital projects, the CNU infrastructure programme which includes this project, must be considered within the overall capital envelope available to the health service. There will always be more projects than can be funded by the Exchequer.Therefore the reason capital funding is not ring-fenced by project is to ensure that the HSE has flexibility to manage within its voted capital allocation in the event that one or more of the hundreds of construction projects underway at any time do not progress as scheduled. This enables the HSE, to leverage its capital allocation more efficiently, so that it delivers the maximum number of priority projects for the funding available.