Mr. Jim Breslin:

On the first question, as I said earlier, we moved rapidly through different plans. When we started off, a surge had to be planned for. When that did not materialise, the heads of terms had already provided for further, non-Covid activity that could take place in those private hospitals, and the focus of everybody's effort was to promote that. People keep forgetting, however, that between 27 March and 5 May, NPHET had said routine healthcare services should be paused. It was against that backdrop that we were working.

On utilisation and the IHCA, I will not speak for everybody in the room but I think we have, collectively, spent many weeks of hours trying to engage with the IHCA to try to find a way through that would unlock the commitment of private consultants, about 50% of whom signed up pretty readily but quite a number had significant concerns. We clarified at length, and while we were not in a position to give them what they were looking, we certainly gave them clarification over a protracted period in the hope that as many of them as possible would come on board. It was a voluntary arrangement and more and more came on as it continued.