Jim Daly (Cork South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy is repeating what I have said. He accepts that we should be more focused on the real challenge, that being, what is affecting capacity in our hospital groups and preventing the free movement of people in and out of hospital. The Deputy was articulate in putting his point about the length of time spent on trolleys and that all of us should be damn glad to get onto a trolley straight away provided we are not left waiting, which is too often the case.

The Deputy made particular reference to older people. That is a major challenge for us, as there are 1.4 million presentations to accident and emergency departments in a given year and people aged over 65 years amount to approximately 50% of that figure. I hope I am right about that. I met a group of consultant geriatricians in Cork recently and that was the figure they gave me. Ensuring that older people in particular are not waiting unnecessary lengths of time to access acute healthcare is a challenge for us.

Was there another question?