Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Ms Ní Sheaghdha. I wish to ask one final question. We know from the survey the percentage of healthcare workers who had to take annual leave and parental leave. There is an onus on us, as a committee, to examine that in detail. It seems obvious that we are possibly facing into a winter of discontent in the context of healthcare. We will have Covid and non-Covid healthcare issues and we will have the normal winter surge and the flu. If healthcare workers cannot get their leave restored so that they can take parental leave or annual leave, it seems that we will be sleepwalking off a cliff because we could be facing a resurgence of Covid-19. We do not know, but we have to plan for it. Part of the purpose of this committee is to look at what we got wrong and what we need to get right as we move forward.