Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I join with Deputy Duncan Smith's comment with regard to fire engines. I thank the witnesses for their presentations. People have spoken about lessons learned. The bottom line in all of this is that our public health capacity is woefully inadequate. Responsibility for that is entirely political.

I have two questions. The first is for Mr. Woods and the second for Mr. Breslin. It has been possible to use capacity for non-Covid cases since 5 May. The HSE seems to have been very slow in ramping up the use of that capacity. I know there was some initial reluctance and people were concerned that a surge would arrive - and I am thankful it did not - but, at the same time, many procedures could have been carried out. I am referring to hip and knee procedures, for example. People could go in for two or three days and be back out. In the event of an increase in Covid cases, the hospitals could have been cleared very quickly. Why are we so slow in ramping this up? There are just over three weeks left to run in the current contract and there is still no roadmap. That is very hard to understand. There is very valuable capacity in private settings and, to a certain extent, in public settings. Why are we not maximising the use of this capacity? That is my question for Mr. Woods.

My second question is for Mr. Breslin. It relates to the future. Many of us would have liked to see the contract continue even up to the end of the year and the capacity be used fully. All Covid patients got immediate access. There was no distinction made between public patients and private patients. There is a strong case to be made for continuing with such an approach for non-Covid cases. Sláintecare talked about the importance of elective-only hospitals. That has been accepted by the Government. Has the Department of Health considered designating certain private hospitals as elective-only hospitals and, in this way, really motoring through elective surgery waiting lists and making progress very quickly?

Has the Department looked at the possibility of taking over those private hospitals on a longer-term basis, as has happened in Scotland?