Hospital Facilities Seanad Éireann — 2026-06-11 ============================================================ Dee Ryan (FF), Nominated by the Taoiseach Tá fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House to answer this query. I have asked for an urgent update on the establishment of a hospital board, on the expansion of facilities at UHL and on what other measures can be taken, including recruitment of additional consultants to meet demand and population levels in the mid-west. At the outset I acknowledge and thank the Government and the Minister of State for last December bringing clarity and direction to the healthcare and hospital crisis that has plagued the mid-west for far too long. The HIQA report last autumn laid bare for all to see that the brutal overcrowding in our emergency department is caused by the chronic shortage of acute inpatient beds in UHL. That point remains central to my query for an update today. As we move forward, it is important and welcome that there is a focus on additional beds in Nenagh, Ennis and St. John's hospitals. Nonetheless, it is the provision of further acute inpatient beds that will help to alleviate the accident and emergency overcrowding we are experiencing in the mid-west. In March the Minister announced the purchase of a 43-acre site in Raheen as part of plans to expand hospital facilities for UHL at Dooradoyle. I am seeking an update from the Minister of State on what steps have been taken since then to move the project forward. We understand that this is not something that will happen overnight. We appreciate that thought and consideration have to be put into establishing a project board, but the project board is the first critical step in developing and finalising the plans and monitoring the progress of the development of the new site at Raheen. While the Minister has accepted and authorised the maximising of the facilities on the existing UHL Dooradoyle site, that is a more complex project. This is the only acute hospital in the region. It is a busy hospital. It is managing all of the health requirements for 440,000 people across the area. It is a phased development. I give full credit to all of the hospital doctors, workers and staff who are going in and out every day. They are doing their absolute best in challenging facilities, and in what is effectively a construction site. The welcome second 96-bed block is under construction at the moment and there are plans for further development on that site. While we have to be more phased in the development and the maximising of facilities on the Dooradoyle site, once plans have been finalised and planning permission has been granted we can plough ahead and go hammer and tongs at the green site in Raheen. I would like the Minister of State to provide an update on those, and I will ask about the consultant numbers afterwards. --- 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/2026-06-11/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:55:03+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-06-11