Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I agree absolutely. Again, it is back to management needing to ensure we have a complement of rostered senior decision-makers doing the rounds, visiting the wards and discharging patients who are ready and who want to go home at the weekends. It does not take a rocket scientist to work out why our trolley numbers drop as we get towards the end of the week and into the weekend and then begin to take off again. We are meant to have a 24-7 health service in this country and it requires a 24-7 presence. There is active interest from us all, from the Minister, the hospital manager, the HSE and the consultants. We all have to pull together in this regard.

I have no wish to come across in any way as being overly negative. I have seen really good examples from consultants and managers going above and beyond what they are asked to do. I am simply pointing out that it is not a homogeneous group and we need to stop talking about it as though it is. We need to learn from the good and the bad and discover the reasons. We need to share that knowledge. I am not asking these questions in the abstract. We are undertaking these activities as we speak.

We do not want to have a perverse incentive whereby people are concerned that if they perform well when it comes to a winter initiative, they will be told they do not need help because they are doing well. We need to convey the message that if someone does well, they get more support to do even better.