The Health Service Executive has decided to farm out the decision on the location of the new hospital for the northeast region to outside consultants.
The move to appoint consultants to identify a site for the hospital comes months after the HSE appointed its own steering group to select the most suitable location for the new hospital.
Now a notice on the Government's e-tender website states that: "The Health Service Executive wishes to invite companies to submit tenders to provide a consultancy to carry out a detailed study to advise on the location for the new regional hospital in the northeast region of the Republic of Ireland."
It says the consultants selected to carry out the study will get a 12-month contract, "with an option to extend for a further six months". It also says that once consultants are appointed they should complete their report within two months, "unless otherwise agreed".
This means the contentious issue of selecting a site for the new hospital in the northeast will be postponed for several months yet, and certainly until after the general election.
A new hospital for the north-east was recommended by the Lourdes hospital inquiry report and by Teamwork, the firm of British consultants which reported last summer after reviewing the way hospital services are organised in the northeast region.
Judge Maureen Harding Clark, in the Lourdes hospital inquiry report, published last February, said: "The time has come for the planners of the health needs of the northeastern region to provide a centrally located new hospital . . . perhaps the project design team will consider locating the proposed new regional hospital in a greenfield site equidistant from the major towns in the region."
And the Teamwork report published last June said a steering group should be set up by the HSE to identify a site for the new hospital.
The HSE then appointed a steering group and one of its terms of reference was to identify a location for the new regional hospital "at an early stage".
It is not clear why it has now been decided to ask outside consultants to carry out this task. The HSE would only say that the steering group has decided to engage an outside consultancy that will be tasked with reporting back to it with a recommendation.
The documentation does not say how much the consultants will be paid for their study.
The closing date for receipt of tenders is February 22nd.