Upgrade works at five community hospitals across West Cork are facing delays, the HSE has confirmed.

Work at St. Joseph's in Castletownbere and St. Anne's in Skibbereen have been pushed back to 2020. While upgrades at St. Anthony's in Dunmanway, Clonakilty Community Hospital and Kinsale Community Hospital have been delayed by one to three years.

The information regarding the delays was released to local Fianna Fáil TD Margaret Murphy O'Mahony.

Deputy Murphy O'Mahony has hit out at the delays and questioned whether the recent National Children's Hospital overrun has impacted the West Cork projects.

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"These community hospitals provide essential services to people needing long term care, convalescence, respite, palliative care and dementia care to people in West Cork," she said. "They are valuable assets and have strong community support. These upgrade works were approved years ago and these latest delays are extremely disappointing.

"Are these delays a knock-on effect of the massive overrun at the National Children's Hospital? Are people in West Cork having to wait for improvements in their services because Fine Gael failed to keep a check on the spiralling costs? I will be asking the Minister to clarify if this is the case.

"I would like to commend staff at these hospitals for their dedication to their work and I would also thank members of the local community for the support and assistance they provide to the staff. These hospitals provide vital services to local people and I know that the patients and their families are looking forward to seeing the upgrade works begin," concluded Deputy Murphy O'Mahony.

(CM/MH)