Ms Phil Ní Sheaghdha:

I have, and I thank the Deputy. The important point is that additional beds are needed and must be provided quickly. We are currently involved with a care of older persons service that has gone into liquidation. I do not think that case will be unique but will happen quite regularly, unfortunately. In its service plan last year, the HSE sought to remove 200 beds from care of older persons services. We wrote to the HSE and the Minister for Health objecting to that. We need to increase public service capability to provide care for our older persons. That must be a priority because we know that this virus has a much greater effect on the older population. Our population is aging. We also know that the flu takes a particular toll on our elderly population. For those reasons, we need to be increasing bed numbers in our care of older persons services.

We also need to look at ICU capacity. Three-month contracts were issued to staff to work in the health service during the pandemic and there is a constant requirement to repeat and seek approval for renewal of those contracts.

I have two comments to make on that. The first is that these should be directly hired. The second is that if there is any mention of another moratorium on hiring in the health service, we ask all Deputies who are listening to what is being presented today to oppose it.