Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We have been paying €115 million per month for the use of private hospitals during this period. The corresponding figure we were given for the deal that was done with private hospitals by the NHS in Britain is €82.5 million. I accept there will always be distinctions between different healthcare systems but according to the figures I have – I am open to contradiction – it works out roughly that our deal equated to €44,000 per bed per month while the equivalent deal in Britain was closer to €10,000 per bed per month. Dealing with the issue from a staffing point of view, our deal worked out at €14,000 per staff, per month compared to the British figure of about €4,000 per staff, per month. Could any of the witnesses shed light on why there would be such divergence in those figures?