Mr. Martin Varley:

To respond to Deputy Stephen Donnelly's question, we need to accelerate the opening of beds. A great deal of work has been done on opening and planning for intermediary beds for step-down. It is of the order of 1,600. In addition, we have improvised within the system to bring back into use approximately 1,500 acute hospital beds in public hospitals. They have to be opened and be put on a sustainable footing. To do so, we need to fund them, as has been outlined over many years, and to staff them. The service cannot be run on an overstretched basis. I go back to the fact that between 500 and 600 of our permanent consultant posts are vacant. The Government has taken a decision that we should end the discrimination and bring back those consultants, and that is a high priority if we want sustainable services during a peak.

Our IT facilities for radiologists reporting are far less than is needed. We have had engagement with the HSE on it in recent weeks and we just need to put in place proper IT services to allow people to work effectively and build on what has been a lot of agility and of innovation demonstrated by our consultants and hospital doctors in recent months.