The government has committed to building facilities in Cork, Dublin and Galway to reduce overcrowding in acute hospitals, with an extra 977,000 appointments available across the new hospitals.
Ireland’s population grew by an annual average of 65,000 people between 2016 and 2022.
Speaking to RedFM News TD Colm Burke says there are fears that construction of the Cork project may not start until 2027
"We had this problem in the Department of Education as well, it was taking anything up to 15 to 20 years to get schools built. They got their act together because we suddenly had a growing population, it improved substantially compared to where it was 20 years ago. We now need to do the same thing with the health service. Remember, the population of this country has increased by 40% since the year 2000"
