Mr. Pat Healy:

The focus has been on the fair deal scheme, but I think an important initiative that is being funded now is the approval of 173 public beds around the country. We are opening an additional 65 short-stay bed community hospital in Mount Carmel. Some 24 dedicated beds were secured through the private sector for the Louth area to support Our Lady of Lourdes hospital. That is a good indication that there were not sufficient short-stay or long-stay beds in the Louth area to support the hospital. We are looking at creative ways of supporting hospitals. More will be required and, as Mr. O'Brien, the director general, said earlier, there are a couple of aspects to the issue. First, there is the direction of travel to the fair deal scheme, or the nursing home support scheme, which I hope will bring confidence to the private sector to engage in the development of further facilities. People have planning permission for nursing homes in various locations but the projects have not been progressing to capital construction. Equally, on the public side, there are locations around the country where additional capacity will need to be developed in both the private and public sectors, and obviously we will have to attend to that.