I propose to take Questions Nos. 310, 311, 312 and 313 together.
I would like to inform the Deputy that there is no waiting list for in-patient services at St. Columcille's Hospital, Loughlinstown and I understand that the reason St. Columcille's Hospital was excluded from the list of hospitals referred to was due to the fact that they have no patients waiting for in-patient treatment in excess of three months.
With reference to the casemix programme, I refer the Deputy to Question No. 356 of Tuesday, 21 March, in which the annual financial adjustments for all hospitals participating in casemix, including St. Columcille's, were detailed in full.
Casemix is an internationally accepted methodology, used in a wide variety of health care settings, to compare activity and costs between hospitals. The essence of casemix is to allow the workload of hospitals to be compared in a manner which takes account of the complexity and volume of the cases treated in each hospital. Furthermore, hospitals participating in casemix also have the opportunity to have any other unique circumstances taken into account to ensure that casemix operates on a consistent basis of comparison. Any such issues that have been brought to the attention of my Department in respect of St. Columcille's have been taken into account in calculating the casemix adjustment, in line with the objective of ensuring the consistent treatment of all participating hospitals.
St. Columcille's Hospital has submitted a development plan to my Department to meet priority needs. These proposals will be considered in the context of decisions to be made on the allocation of funding for hospital developments under the national development plan. In relation to respite beds, a 50 bed community unit for older people is scheduled to open in Dalkey later this year. This unit will include the provision of respite facilities.