Ms Eilísh Hardiman:

We have had horrendous pressures across all our hospitals. I acknowledge the experience of Deputy O'Connell and other families, for which we apologise. We are dealing with a significant pressure arising from the flu and respiratory illness winter season. Without the unit at Connolly hospital, it would have been an awful lot worse. That facility has allowed us to decompress some of the other emergency departments and move patients to wherever there are better facilities. We have also been able to move staff. That was possible because we have the same systems in place across the hospitals, so the staff are familiar with the set-up. In addition, we have an IT system which shows where all the beds are in each hospital. Our staff are now working in an integrated way. The important point to emphasise is that it takes a lot of time to plan and put things in place, but it means we will be ready to get working when we move to the new hospital.