Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 22 January 2026
75. Deputy Albert Dolan asked the Minister for Health to provide an update on the redevelopment of Galway University Hospital; and the current stage of planning and approval, any changes to the project scope or costs; and the anticipated timeline for delivery. [5008/26]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe enhanced National Development Plan (NDP) 2026–2030 provides investment of €9.25 billion for health infrastructure and digitalisation. This will further support the delivery of equitable, accessible and high-quality healthcare across Ireland, including in Galway for the HSE West and North West region, with the delivery on the acute inpatient beds in the first instance and site-wide enabling works, subject to the statutory planning processes.
Galway University Hospitals is proposing a number of projects of significant scale on its University Hospital Galway (UHG) campus, which when complete will provide state-of-the-art Model 4 hospital facilities. A Development Control Plan (DCP) for the campus has been completed to provide a clear plan for the sequencing and phased delivery of the new capacity and facilities. This sequencing has been led and informed by the clinical priorities for the region and the need to deliver new and replacement capacity in a phased manner to minimise disruption to ongoing service delivery on a live hospital campus.
Each of the proposals under the phased DCP programme will be major projects, i.e. in excess of €200m. The immediate priority identified in the master planning is the delivery of significant additional inpatient bed capacity to mitigate the pressures on, and support delivery of, a range of services on the campus.
The NDP allocation will provide for progression on the in-patient ward blocks, subject to the statutory planning processes, while also providing for enabling works for the next phase and progressing business cases for subsequent phases to the point of being ‘shovel ready’. A competition to appoint a framework of Design Teams for these ward blocks is currently underway.
Considerable enabling works are required to facilitate development of the UHG campus. Works to clear the site for the first inpatient ward block are underway, as are projects to decant the majority of Outpatient Services to Merlin Park. A design team framework has now been established to progress all outstanding enabling and decanting works.
A review of the programme Strategic Assessment Report (SAR) for the proposals at UHG has been completed. The Preliminary Business Case (PBC) for the first phases of the works is under development and is expected in Q3 2026.
As with any projects of the scale proposed for the UHG campus, estimates on timeline and cost cannot be made until the completion of a Final Business Case, completion of the tender process, and determination that a proposal remains affordable and continues to represent value for money.
