Mr. Pat Healy:

In terms of the initiative in December, there were already plans, as part of our escalation process, to have 700 beds available. As has been said, we had approval for an additional €3 million so those 300 beds went in before Christmas. The waiting time has been brought to 11 weeks, so it is currently 11 weeks and it is continuing at that. That is an important part of that. Of course, there is demographic growth and the waiting list. The system works significantly better when, as Deputy Healy said, the waiting list is no more than four to six weeks. It is important to say that as part of the escalation, 165 transitional care beds, in addition to the fair deal scheme, were put in place in December. They made an important contribution also in reducing the number of delayed discharges overall in the time set out in the director general's opening statement. Since then, a really important part has been the focus on transitional care over the past number of weeks. We have worked closely with Nursing Homes Ireland in that regard and it has to be acknowledged that it has worked well with us on that. We identified 250 beds from a survey we undertook with Nursing Homes Ireland and we are targeting those. That has contributed significantly to our capacity to respond.

The work under way between hospitals and community services, in particular social care, is in matching the capacity within the private nursing home sector with the dependency of older people, in particular those who are being discharged, and that is working well. We have seen the reductions. Some 192 have been discharged in the past week, so that is an important part of it.

In regard to the home care packages, it is important to confirm to the committee that has been available. Throughout December, a significant focus was deployed to ensure home care packages and home care services were provided. In the week before Christmas, more than 120 home care packages were provided, some 87 directly to the hospitals. During December more than 296 home care packages were delivered to the hospitals as part of that initiative, or more than 550 when one takes the community and hospital together.

It is clear the initiative put in place in terms of the escalation between the hospital and the community has worked well throughout December. There are usually 20 cases over the week where a bit of work has to be done between the hospital and the community to ensure the person gets home. It might be that the home care provider has to get the staff in place or it might be that a person needs some modification of his or her house but we are working very closely with hospital and the community to ensure that has kept to a very minimum.