Mr. David Walsh:

I thank the Chairman. Perhaps I can clarify to Deputy O'Reilly that the HSE uses two mechanisms to assist with the discharge of people from acute hospitals. One is the nursing home support scheme that the committee is familiar with. The second support to that is the use of transitional care where people are going through the process of that scheme or, if they just need some convalescent time in a nursing home prior to discharge home, then they can access transitional care funding. Additional transitional care funding was made available to assist with the discharge of people who had completed the acute phase of their care to take people who were inappropriately in hospital so that they could be cared for in an appropriate setting, which is a nursing home.