Mr. Paul Reid:

In the past, it has been a priority to invest in the current demands on our service. Currently, all of the pressure points head towards our emergency department and hospital acute settings. I am convinced in the six months that I have been here that the shift that we have to make is to reduce the number of presentations, not through anyone's fault, to our emergency departments. That has to be done through a number of ways. Sláintecare sets out a strategy for this. We need more GPs. I have been talking with the training body for GPs. Bringing more on-stream will be key for us. We need to enhance the capacity and capability of our pharmacies in terms of their reach into communities. We can only reduce the number of people who need to present to emergency departments by strengthening our primary care teams.

A positive element of our service plan, which is being finalised and is with the Minister to go to the Government shortly, is an enhanced investment for next year in our complete primary care settings from a number of perspectives. This will enhance investment in the nursing home support scheme and home help hours. In particular, there will be capacity to increase our resourcing in community settings, for example, primary nursing, by more than 1,000 personnel by the end of 2020. There is a €10 million investment.

We need to shift the investment profile from the acute setting, which is under pressure, into primary care settings primarily while supporting the acute setting.