To ask the Minister of Health to detail the amount of money allocated to the commissioning of a Nightingale Hospital at the Whiteabbey Hospital site; and what long term benefits this additional funding will have for services at the hospital post-COVID-19.

The capital costs allocated for the necessary refurbishments at the Whiteabbey site to develop the Nightingale facility amount to £4.53 million. It is anticipated that the facility will remain assigned for Nightingale purposes for a period of up to two years.

Developing the second Nightingale facility at Whiteabbey provides a legacy facility for future use, which would not have been the case had a commercial site been chosen. The future use of the Whiteabbey facility will be carefully considered in due course.