Hospital Facilities Seanad Éireann — 2025-12-17 ============================================================ Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (FG), Dún Laoghaire We did discuss the report in November. I knew then the approach I would be taking. I am very pleased to have spoken to the Cabinet about that first, as was appropriate, and to have secured its support for the approach I want to take, which is to implement all three options in the HIQA report and to meet the need for additional acute bed capacity and healthcare capacity more broadly across the mid-west. As Senator Ryan said, we are progressing with options A, B and C. Option A is the delivery of acute beds at the site. I thank the Senator for explaining it, but, as Minister for Health, I do understand the difference between acute and non-acute beds. I also understand the need for non-acute beds in Ennis and Nenagh in the context of step-down services and as a key component of flow, which, the Senator will understand, is something that Limerick has improved enormously over the period during which I have been Minister for Health. I thank those responsible for their excellent management and I thank the staff for the extraordinary work they are doing. UHL is one of the busiest hospitals in the country, but it is also the one that is discharging best at weekends. It has the best level of consultant rostering at weekends, which is a consequence of the implementation of the reforms we have introduced in the past 12 years. There is no point in putting additional acute beds into Limerick if we do not put non-acute beds in other locations, particularly as this will allow us to move people out of those acute beds and move them to services somewhere closer to home. That is the essence of Sláintecare, and that is how patient flow works. I am sure the Senator will welcome all those things happening at the same time, particularly as they are codependent in the context of allowing patient flow to work. The second question was on the location of the maternity unit and the second emergency department. Our priority is to secure an appropriate site in relation to option B, as mandated by the Government, and to consider all of our options in respect of option C. The best, most appropriate structure to do that is to consider it alongside the best clinical advice possible. I will be engaging with clinicians on the best way to structure that going forward once we have secured an appropriate site and have seen what flexibility that will give us as regards options A and B and the appropriate clinical distribution of the services across the two sites. I will take the clinical advice in relation to that, as I am sure, will the Senator, and put it at the centre of future development. We have a huge opportunity in the mid-west to do something we really have not had the chance to do with many other hospitals, which is to have a genuine fresh start. I have spoken to health ministers from around the world, including when I was at the G20 summit, from Singapore, Indonesia and Norway about the different perspectives and what they are learning about how to design hospitals best, the right size, the best clinical distribution. I hope we and the people of the mid-west will be beneficiaries of the fact that we have a genuine opportunity to think quite differently. The clinical community will be at the heart of that as will the patient forum and public representatives. We will take the best clinical advice we can as to how to distribute services across the Limerick region and the mid-west more broadly. It is as important for the people of Limerick as it is for the people of Clare that more services are delivered away from UHL and in Ennis. That is why full understanding of integrated care for the region is as important for the people of central Limerick as it is for the people of Clare. Everything that is delivered appropriately in Clare releases capacity for the over-congested site that is Dooradoyle and all the traffic implications for the people of Limerick and the need to move care in appropriate ways elsewhere. However, the first and most important thing is that we now have Cabinet approval and a plan. I have mandated the HSE to get the appropriate site. On funding, I ask the Senator to speak to her excellent colleague, the Minister, Deputy Chambers, in the Department of public expenditure and reform. He will be a key part of that. I have the funding for the relevant site but in all things, like all Ministers, I have a limited capital envelope. Where I get projects to shovel-ready I have a commitment from the Minister they will be funded irrespective of the capital envelope as it is now. Our bigger challenge is not the allocation of funding at the other end but getting projects shovel ready. The Minister for public expenditure is responsible for two pieces here – implementing the terms of the accelerated infrastructure task force and making sure his officials ensure it is implemented, and then providing the capacity to fund in a range of different ways. I would welcome the Senator’s support with both of those crucial things for the people of the mid-west to make sure her party colleague delivers for them. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2025-12-17/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:28+00:00 Sitting date: 2025-12-17