Officials have no idea when hospital helipad will be built

A helipad for Cork University Hospital will cost as much as €2m — but planning permission red tape means officials still do not know when it will be built.

The latest meeting of the HSE South regional health forum has been told that despite the need for the vital service, management has yet to find a long-term answer to the problem.

During an at-times heated debate on the matter, local politicians said the service gap was unacceptable for the only hospital classed as a level-one trauma centre.