The Health Service Executive's Chief Operations Officer has said it is too early to know when full facilities will be restored at Wexford General Hospital following a fire earlier this week.
However Damien McCallion said they do know it will be "months, more than weeks" for the areas that were damaged.
"There is an impact over a long period, and we are looking at both short-term options and long-term options in relation to how we could address the deficit and the gap that will be there as a result of this," he said.
Speaking to RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Mr McCallion said they are awaiting a technical report on the exact cause of the fire instead of speculating.
He also commended the measures taken in response to the blaze and said a rolling programme on fire safety in the hospital mitigated what happened in terms of potential consequences.
Meanwhile Taoiseach Leo Varadkar described the damage caused in Wednesday's fire as "extensive".
"It's going to take weeks to months before the hospital is back up and running fully but that is the objective and I've given everyone here the assurance that the government will do everything it can to support the efforts to get the hospital up and running, full service, as soon as possible," he said.
Maternity services at the hospital have resumed this morning and Mr McCallion said outpatients will reopen on Monday.
He acknowledged that there is a challenge around emergency and scheduled care, and the demand it is placing on other hospitals, adding that they are looking at contingency measures.
He said that to reopen the emergency department will require "a number of things" including ensuring sufficient beds.
"Our team this morning are working through the options as there will be some loss of beds as a result of the fire in that area," he said.
"Undoubtedly we will look in the short term if some patients are going to need extended care if they can be accommodated in the areas in Wexford that are safe."
Decisions on patients repatriated back to Wexford will be made on a case-by-case basis, Mr McCallion said.
The fire broke out on Wednesday afternoon in the roof area of the hospital.
It is understood around 27 patients are still being treated on site at the hospital, while more than 90 were transferred to other hospitals.
Hospital manager Linda O'Leary said yesterday that services would reopen on a phased basis, depending on how quickly they can confirm that essential services are back in place.
She said she was hopeful that repair works would begin soon, but they do not yet know the extent of the damage.
A consultant at the hospital said some unaffected areas of the building will reopen today while assessment and repair works continue.
Also speaking on Morning Ireland, Dr Mick Molloy said the hospital's emergency department remains closed "until we can get the critical care areas and admission wards off the ground".
We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
He said there were no new inpatients, but plans were in place to repatriate patients who were evacuated as soon as it is safe.
Dr Molloy said it was "phenomenal" that no one was injured in the fire, adding that staff used an "inherent training" to ensure no one came to any harm.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar is to visit Wexford later today to see the damage first-hand.
He pledged that patients who now find themselves in different surroundings will be brought back to Wexford as soon as possible.
However, he said the full restoration of services at the hospital could take some time.
A helpline has been set up for relatives of family members that anyone with queries regarding a patient transfer can ring on 053-9153012.
