The co-location policy has been the source of much debate and speculation throughout the election campaign with the principal opposition parties all promising to reverse the process if elected.

As the votes were being counted, Finn, who is assistant general secretary with the National Hospitals Office, said he planned to announce the winning bidders in the coming weeks, saying "it looks like the political situation will remain at the status quo".

"Right now all I can say is that we will be announcing the first six winning bidders in the middle of next month. A final date has not been decided yet, but it's still full-steam ahead, " he said.

"We are going through the evaluation process and all of the bidders submitted very detailed comprehensive bids. They were well resourced and would have cost them a huge amount of money to compile so as far as I'm concerned the project is going well, " he added.

This week they will be issuing the invitations to tender for the hospital at James Connolly in north Dublin with Tallaght General to follow next month.

Finn reported great enthusiasm from the developers looking to win the contracts to build and manage the six privat hospitals.

"The bidders are very anxious to get in and I can see why . . . it's the future, " he said.