Johnny Guirke (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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1250. To ask the Minister for Health if any projects under his remit are on hold due to Capital Funding pressures; if he will indicate the projects, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12629/23]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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Capital investment has a critical role to play in enabling reform proposed in the Programme for Government, enhancing service provision, and to drive the reforms as set out in Sláintecare.

The Capital Plan is an annual document that sets out the planned Health infrastructure investment within a given year.

Aligned to Programme for Government commitments and progress of health strategies and policies, there is a strong pipeline of capital projects being progressed by my Department and the HSE. The number and cost of projects competing for inclusion in the annual Capital Plan invariably exceeds the funding and resources available.

In order to ensure optimum use of all available resources, and in keeping with good practice, it is necessary to conduct a prioritisation exercise to determine which projects are funded and progressed in any given year.

Ensuring value for money is achieved from the available capital budget and selecting projects, requires a robust prioritisation exercise be completed, to inform the Capital Plan. There are a number of considerations that interact to influence the delivery of health infrastructure as well as funding levels, including public spending code requirements, statutory planning, public procurement, construction delivery capacity and supply chain considerations.

Once a project has been included in the Capital Plan, the intention is that it should progress to completion. However, in line with the Public Spending Code and best practice, projects are reviewed at various design stages and re-evaluated, should the project scope or costs alter.

In 2022, the full allocation was utilised to progress the Capital Plan.

In 2023 the core allocation for the funding the capital Plan is €967m, an increase of 11% over 2022 core allocation, plus an amount of €50m for Covid infrastructure projects. This investment will enable the HSE to progress projects across the country in 2023. Projects and Programmes being progressed include:

- New Children’s Hospital

- Capacity projects including critical care beds and acute hospital beds

- Elective hospitals

- Relocation of the National Maternity Hospital and other maternity services projects

- Primary Care Programme including the building and equipping of centres across the country

- HIQA Programme for Community Nursing units involving refurbishment to HIQA standard of units throughout the country

- Mental health facilities including CAMHS units and acute mental health units across the country

- Accommodation for Enhanced Community Care programme

- Investment in Trauma and Rehabilitation projects

- Equipment replacement and infrastructural risk projects

- Investment in Climate Action and Sustainability projects

- Replacement ambulance programme and ambulance bases renovation

I and officials in my Department will continue to work with the HSE and other stakeholders to ensure the capital programme and capital plans are progressed over 2023 and future years.