Mr. Liam Woods:

It is important to return to a level of service provision, which probably will not be at the pre-Covid level but will be greater than we have seen in the past couple of months. The future of this arrangement with the Private Hospitals Association will also be important in terms of work being done. However, the workflow through the emergency departments, the biggest piece of inpatient work in the HSE, and what happens with that as we approach winter will be of critical concern. An environment in which we have capacity constraints - and as the Deputy indicated additional capacity constraints around safe practice in a time of Covid - is going to present a big challenge. The negotiations with the Private Hospitals Association, in accordance with the Government's decision, will be an important piece of that. There are other elements, to which I referred earlier, around intermediate care at which we are also looking.