Significant investment would be required to upgrade St Bricin's military hospital in Dublin to enable it to be used to ease overcrowding at the nearby Mater hospital, Minister for Health Mary Harney has confirmed.
Her comments come after an inspection of the hospital by officials from her department, the Health Service Executive (HSE) and the Mater. It has up to 100 idle beds.
The inspection followed an approach by Ms Harney to Defence Minister Willie O'Dea about the prospect of the hospital being made available for civilian use. Mr O'Dea gave the go-ahead last month and said he expected it would make a major contribution to easing the A&E crisis.
However, replying to a Dáil question this week from Labour's health spokeswoman Liz McManus, who asked if a feasibility study on using the military hospital had been completed, Ms Harney said it had found that "a significant level of investment" would be required before the hospital could be used.
She said St Bricin's had been looked at to see if it could be used for acute hospital care or as a stepdown facility.
"I understand that part of the infrastructure has been enhanced, but that a significant level of investment would still be required to upgrade the hospital to the necessary standard," she said.
"A number of issues are now being considered by my department in conjunction with the HSE. These include the level of capital investment needed and the timeframe within which the facility upgrade works could be completed."