Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will take ten minutes.

I thank our witnesses and their members, and all our healthcare workers who do a phenomenal job day in and day out. We have said many times that while it is very nice to get a round of applause in this House at 8 p.m. on a Thursday, it would be even nicer to have the decent pay and conditions, and the equipment needed to do their job. That must be our focus. The appreciation is there but it needs to have very serious follow-up.

I thank the witnesses for their statements. I suppose it is fair to say that we came into the pandemic in very poor condition in terms of our health service, not just in the length of our waiting lists but also in the level of overcrowding which existed. Into that breach stepped healthcare workers who proved themselves capable of changing their own work practices and adapting to the new environment in a way that was breathtaking. The IMO makes the correct point that in the deal that was done, the capacity was made very necessary due to the neglect by successive Governments over many years, as the IMO statement put it. We know why we were in that condition. That said, there was a very real and pressing need for the additional capacity to be sought. I want to concentrate on the value-for-money element of this deal of €115 million a month for a minimum of three months. Is it likely in the opinion of our witnesses that the private hospitals would have seen a huge downturn in business because of Covid-19 in any event? I do not think there is any question that the private hospitals were going to be full. The evidence suggests that people were staying away from hospital, that they did not want to be putting themselves in harm's way. We were purchasing from the private hospitals on the basis of the capacity that we needed, but we never achieved that capacity in the private hospitals and those beds were never utilised. Could the witnesses comment on what the likely activity would have been in the private hospital sector? Would it have experienced a similar fall-off in attendances for procedures? I hesitate to use the word "business."