David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We can go only on the information we are given by the Minister's Department. His ministerial brief states the HSE estimates an 20% decrease in the number of targeted inpatient cases for 2020. It has also estimated there could be a shortfall in capacity due to safe distancing requirements and a reduction in utilisation to 80% of 4,700 beds, based on a current baseline of 11,000. I submitted a parliamentary question seeking a breakdown on a hospital-by-hospital basis. The response stated, with regret, that the information was not collected in the form I required and, therefore, was not available as requested.

We cannot even get a breakdown of what that will mean in each hospital or in each hospital group, and we are trying to plan and support the Government in terms of what solutions are in place. Whatever the figure is, I think we can agree we are going to lose capacity. What people want to know, and what front-line healthcare workers want to know, is how we will replace that capacity. If the figure is as bad as the brief suggests and it is 4,700 beds, how is that shortfall in capacity going to be made up, and where is the plan to do so?