Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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101. To ask the Minister for Health the number of extra hospital beds that will be required on foot of the ESRI projection that demand for inpatient bed days is projected to increase by between 32% to 37% by 2030, from 3.27 million in 2015; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48184/17]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy has referenced, the ESRI published projections of demand for healthcare last month. The projections are for the time period 2015 and 2030 and show significant increases in demand across all health services.

Complementary to the ESRI work, my Department is undertaking a Capacity Review. As I have previously stated, the Review will have a wider scope than previous exercises and will include key elements of primary and community care infrastructure in addition to hospital facilities. It will examine in detail the demand for all key types of hospital activity, including inpatient, daycase, outpatients, critical care, and emergency, in addition to those non-acute areas which most impact on hospitals, such as primary care and care of older persons.

A Steering Group is overseeing the project, with support from external consultants commissioned to provide technical, analytical and engagement expertise. An independent international peer review group is involved in ongoing review and validation of the methodology and approach.

My Department has also undertaken a public consultation process to ensure that stakeholder views are fed into the Review.

The findings from this Review will provide a basis for determining both the extent of capacity requirements over the next 15 years and the type of capacity that is needed at a national and regional level. The emerging findings from the review will inform the development of a new 10 year national capital plan later this year.

I expect to receive the final report of the Capacity Review by the end of the year.