Maternity services must be included in plans for a proposed second campus at University Hospital Limerick (UHL), according to Limerick Senator Dee Ryan.
The Fianna Fáil senator has urged the HSE to ensure maternity care is co-located within the new development, stressing that it should be central to any significant expansion of hospital infrastructure in the region.
Her comments come after HSE Mid-West submitted site recommendations for a nearby second campus to senior leadership, with the Fianna Fáil senator saying it is “crucial” that any major investment in expanded hospital infrastructure also delivers a dedicated maternity facility on the same site.
Senator Ryan said she is “really pushing this” with the Minister for Health, Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, who is expected to decide on a site within the coming weeks.
While acknowledging the strong local “fondness” for University Maternity Hospital Limerick on the Ennis Road, she said the existing facilities “need to be improved,” adding that “it’s long been the view of previous Ministers for Health that the maternity services should be moved closer to UHL.”
“The services are across both campuses and it’s in the interest of everybody, both staff trying to deliver those services and the patients being cared for, that we move them closer together,” she stated.
She continued: “In my view, the women and the girls in Limerick deserve top of the range facilities when they’re going in to deliver their babies.”
It was confirmed in December by the Minister for Health that all three options proposed in September 2025’s Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) report were accepted by the government and would be progressed.
The options put forward in the report outlined how to address the overcrowding in University Hospital Limerick (UHL) and the overall inpatient bed capacity deficits in the region.
In the report, HIQA expressed the view that Option A, expanding the capacity at UHL’s current site, or Option B, extending the UHL hospital campus to comprise of both the existing site and another site nearby, would “likely yield the required inpatient bed capacity in the Mid-West within a shorter timeframe, thereby addressing the immediate risk to patient safety”.
In comparison, the report stated that Option C, creating a new Model 3 hospital, “offers the potential to meet the longer-term bed requirements, but would be least capable of addressing immediate capacity deficits, and would likely have the longest lead time.”
Regional executive officer for HSE Mid-West, Sandra Broderick, confirmed that “significant work has been undertaken” in the weeks since the announcement about the development of a second campus near UHL.
A shortlist of available lands has been completed and recommendations for acquisition have been sent to the HSE Senior Leadership Team and the HSE Board.
Ms. Broderick described this as “a defining moment” for healthcare in the Mid-West.
Mayor of Limerick John Moran believes it is “critical to maintain” momentum on the delivery of additional bed capacity at University Hospital Limerick.
The mayor has stated he is “looking forward to meaningful consultation with the Minister and officials before any decisions are finalised.”
Labour TD Conor Sheehan is also anxious to see progress on the development plans warning it will be a “red letter” day for government if they do not deliver.“
He added: “I would like to see it included within the next HSE Capital Plan so that we could see progress on it in the next two to three to five years.”