Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions
Dail Éireann — 2026-05-27
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Micheál Martin (FF), Cork South-Central

I thank the Deputy for raising what is an important issue for people in the mid-west more generally. I acknowledge that the Deputy has acknowledged some progress in respect of developments in health services in the mid-west. He paid tribute to the chief executive officer and the team there at UHL regarding that progress, which was needed. We need to continue to work to enhance services, particularly the quality of services, and best outcomes, and, in particular, to ensure that patient safety will always be at the centre of everything that is done. The first principle of medicine is not to do any harm. That is something clinicians, and indeed everybody else involved in the administration of a hospital, must always have uppermost in their minds.
The 90-bed block that was built recently was delivered on time and within budget. We need to acknowledge that. A lot of infrastructure is, by the way, but, understandably in the context of accountability, it is the ones that are not that get the headlines. We are confident that the next 90-bed block will also come in on budget and on time. The contract has already been awarded for that. That is crucial and critical.
The Minister will shortly be establishing a project board to deal with health services not just in the context of a new hospital in Limerick but the broader health services for the mid-west. Ennis and Nenagh hospitals will need more services. One has to look at the entirety of the hospital campuses in the mid-west in order to get the optimal outcome. We have seen that in the north east. We have seen that in terms of some of the hospital groups whereby the utilisation of other hospitals, apart from the tertiary centre, has been advantageous to patients, with access to outpatient clinics or endoscopy, or a variety of diagnostic facilities and so on. That complements the work that takes place in the acute hospitals or tertiary hospitals. The objective of the project board that the Minister will establish is to get the complete picture for the entirety of the mid-west. Deputies from Clare and Tipperary are very focused on that aspect, as well as on developing a new hospital. The good news is that a site has been secured. As we all, including the Deputy, know, if you are building anything, a school or anything else, securing a site is key and can help us to accelerate the deliberations in respect of it. The objective is to have the best, state-of-the-art services to cater for a population in the mid-west that is going to continue to grow,

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-05-27/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:04+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-05-27