Baineann mo cheist le Gaillimh agus an fáinne fí atá ar siúl, faraor géar, le fada an lá maidir leis an roinn timpistí agus éigeandála nua agus an t-ospidéal nua atá beartaithe. Tá neart eolais ag an Tánaiste faoi Ghaillimh. Is iar-Aire Sláinte é agus bhí sé i nGaillimh cúpla uair agus labhair sé faoin ábhar.

My question relates to the hospitals in Galway. The Tánaiste is familiar with this subject. He is a former Minister for Health and has been to Galway. I used the term "fáinne fí" to describe the unreal magic going on in relation to the accident and emergency department and the lack of progress in Galway. The former Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, said it was not fit for purpose. The current Taoiseach echoed that and the former Minister, Deputy Simon Harris, said the same thing.

I looked at the questions. One would need an advanced post-doctoral degree in some type of English to understand the responses. We talk about business cases and feasibility studies being updated. The estates part of the Health Service Executive is considering it. I do not know what it is considering. However, I know an accident and emergency department is urgently needed in Galway. The Tánaiste has agreed with it but it is nowhere to be seen. There is no planning application. There is no nothing.

An options appraisal came down on the side of a new hospital in Galway as the long-term plan, in addition to short-term and medium-term solutions. A capacity review of beds has been conducted. As the Tánaiste is aware, University Hospital Galway caters for approximately 1 million people from County Donegal to County Galway. It is one of the busiest hospitals in the country.

I will read from the additional report to the options appraisal, the regional elective hospital scoping study. A study carried out on the existing infrastructure stated that "64% and 95% of the infrastructure in UHG and MPUH (respectively) is ‘not satisfactory/unacceptable’ for its current function". The study later refers to operating at capacity and lengthy waiting lists and so on.

I will try to be focused. I have a sense of utter frustration. I cannot imagine what it is like for the staff, and more importantly, the patients. I have responses going back to 2015 telling me the emergency department is going on the capital list. An options appraisal and a scoping study tells me the long-term solution - long term being in the next ten years - is for a hospital in Merlin Park. In between, the programme for Government promises an elective hospital which I have no difficulty with. I have difficulty with the confusion and two of the Tánaiste's colleagues having a public spat in County Galway in relation to who is holding back what. It is not the type of leadership we want and it is why the Health Service Executive got an options appraisal to guide the way forward. I ask the Tánaiste for a focused reply on what he knows about Galway.

I thank the Deputy for raising a question I have been asking in recent weeks because Government made the commitment many years ago to build a new emergency department in University Hospital Galway, on the existing site. It is in the Project Ireland 2040 plan and has been in all our capital plans for quite some time. My understanding - I may not be fully up to date on this - is the plan is to build a new emergency department and a new maternity and pediatric department in the same building, on the University Hospital Galway site. It has been the plan for quite some time.

I made inquiries a few weeks ago to try to understand why it was taking so long. Similar to the Deputy, I received a lengthy response which I could not fully interpret or understand. I am not happy with it either and will follow up on it with the HSE because, as the Deputy said, University Hospital Galway is not just the hospital for Galway city, it is a specialist centre for the entire west and part of the north west. Therefore, it should have as good an emergency department as exists anywhere else, such as the new department in Limerick and in Dublin hospitals. I will look into that further.

No decision has been made by Government in relation to Merlin Park and the elective hospital. An debate is under way as to how the elective hospitals in Dublin, Galway and Cork should look. Should they be day hospitals only, or, have overnight facilities as well? While options appraisals have been done on that, no decision has been put to the Government as of yet.

If the Tánaiste has difficulties understanding the replies, as I do, then that tells us something. It is time for leadership. An elective hospital came from an options appraisal. It was never exclusive to the plan for a new hospital on the Merlin Park site. It was to be step 1 in the phase. If the accident and emergency department is better suited to the new hospital in Merlin Park, so be it, but let us stop the fáinne fí ag dul ar aghaidh agus ar aghaidh gan aon chiall. Tá daoine ag cailleadh muiníne as an gcóras. We are losing all confidence in the system.

The accident and emergency department went up four or five floors in the planner's imagination and it came back down to two floors to incorporate the maternity unit overhead, which is a good idea, but it seems that the timespan for that is almost the same as the timespan for a new hospital at Merlin Park University Hospital, if we go by the options appraisal presented to us in the audiovisual room. There has been a spat between two of the Tánaiste's colleagues, with one accusing the other of delaying it. It is unacceptable. We want a new hospital for Galway. We want a timeline. We want clarification about the emergency department. We want no more obfuscation.

I think we agree on one point, that we need a clear plan for hospital services in Galway and that we need to get on with it. I am frustrated and embarrassed too that this has taken so long. This is a project that was live when I was Minister for Health, which was five or six years ago. I will take this up with the CEO of the HSE. I appreciate that the HSE has much on its plate, especially with the pandemic, but that should not be a reason for this project not to progress to design and planning permission. I thank the Deputy for raising it. Notwithstanding their differences on some points, I assure the Deputy that both Deputy Naughton and Senator Kyne are equally keen to see the new emergency department built and health services approved in the region. I will take this up with the CEO of the HSE in the next couple of days and try to get things moving again.