Conor Sheehan (Limerick City, Labour)
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397. To ask the Minister for Health her views on the co-location of Limerick University Maternity Hospital to the Dooradoyle University Hospital Limerick campus; to provide an expected timeframe for co-location; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [14805/25]

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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It is Government policy, in line with international best practice and as re-iterated in the National Maternity Strategy, to co-locate our remaining standalone maternity hospitals with adult acute hospitals.

Co-location of maternity services with adult services provides mothers with access to a full range of medical and support services should the need arise. The availability of these services helps ensure the delivery of an optimum, safe service, particularly for high-risk mothers and babies.

Co-location of the National Maternity Hospital to the St Vincent’s Hospital campus, which is the first maternity hospital to be co-located under the National Maternity Strategy, is currently subject to a tender process to select the contractor to build that new facility.

The co-location of University Maternity Hospital Limerick to University Hospital Limerick campus in Dooradoyle is considered to be the next maternity co-location project. The scale and complexity of delivering a new maternity hospital means that the co-location will be considered a major capital project and subject to . This proposal is currently at an early appraisal stage with a Strategic Assessment Report/ Preliminary Business Case under development.