Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I do, so let me outline some of the steps that are already being taken. The following are all Covid measures. Home care packages have been increased by 2.6 million hours and community assessment hubs have been introduced, with 29 teams. The number of acute hospital beds has been increased by 400 this year to deal with the additional capacity, and I am seeking funding to ensure that all 400 of those beds stay open. We have additional critical care capacity of 42 beds and 1,600 nursing staff have been upskilled to support critical care.

There has been an increase in the number of intermediate care beds, with 700 open. I am seeking that they will all stay open. As the Deputy will be aware, there has been enhanced infection prevention and control, PPE, cleaning and disinfectant. Part of his reasonable question is on how we increase bed capacity. The other part is how we keep as many people as possible out of hospitals. The clinical hubs are working well and we are looking for them to continue. The mental health support desk has been working well and we are looking for that to continue. Obviously, we are upgrading many other supports around that at the same time, that is, supports for GPs, new GP contracts, safe staffing levels for nursing and many more complementary measures as well.