Mr. Paul Reid:

Dr. Henry will address that. I would like to comment on the status of private hospitals. There are three parts to my response on this topic. First, I note that as we have terminated the last agreement, we have put a bridging fund in place to see us through until the conclusion of a further agreement. That is a €25 million fund which has been approved by the Government. That is being drawn on by various hospital groups for services they provide.

Second, we have issued a tender to all private hospital groups. It has two aspects in that it is a tender for diagnostics and services. We are working out our services plan for the winter and for next year in order to determine the funding we will need for that purpose.

Third, we are directly engaging with the private hospital groups on their role and the services we will make use of if we experience a massive surge like the initial outbreak. The private hospital groups have asked us to engage with them and we are doing so. I am confident they will do the right thing if such an outbreak occurs.