Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats)
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404. To ask the Minister for Health to provide a detailed breakdown of the schedule of delivery for the 22 additional critical care beds provided for in the HSE National Service Plan 2024. [30796/24]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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The Strategic Plan for Critical Care that was brought to Government in 2020 is successfully addressing historical deficiencies in critical care capacity. Significant funding of €78.2 million has been provided by Government since 2021 under Phase 1 of the Strategic Plan. This funding provides for an additional 94 beds over the 2020 baseline figure of 258 beds and will bring capacity to 352. At the end of 2023, there were 329 beds in place. A further 22 beds were confirmed in NSP 2024. Today, there are 334 beds in place, an increase of 76 beds or 29.5% on the baseline figure. To put the increase into perspective, there had been an increase of just 21 beds in the previous eight years (2013 -2020 inclusive). As the delivery of the remaining beds is a service matter, I have referred the matter to the HSE for direct reply.

Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats)
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405. To ask the Minister for Health to provide a detailed breakdown of the schedule of delivery for the 354 net additional and 74 replacement acute inpatient beds outlined in the acute inpatient hospital bed expansion plan. [30797/24]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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Since 2020 this Government has delivered 1,218 net additional acute hospital beds. In addition to the beds already delivered, the recently published Acute Hospital Inpatient Bed Capacity Expansion Plan 2024-2031 sets out the plan for delivery of a further 4,367 acute beds.

The Plan delivers on my commitment to ensure balanced regional bed capacity and to ensure patients across Ireland have equity of access while also helping to meet the health needs of our growing and aging population.

This will represent the largest planned expansion of public acute hospital inpatient capacity in decades.

At the time of writing the Plan 1,015 acute beds are under construction or have committed funding to progress to construction over the next number of years. Regarding the 354 net additional and 74 replacement acute inpatient beds to be delivered across the country, a detailed breakdown and planned schedule for delivery of these beds is set out in the attached table.

As with any plan, these timelines can be impacted by factors such as the availability of labour and specialised resources within the construction sector to enable project delivery and site specific issues.

I, and officials in my Department, will be working closely with the HSE to ensure the expeditious delivery of these projects.