Mr. Paul Reid:

I am trying to address the Deputy's question. To reassure members, I have no interest in spinning numbers. I am merely trying to set out the big structural changes required in the health service over the coming years. Ironically, we are in a much better place as a result of what has happened with Covid because one of the biggest changes we have to make is to release the pressure on our hospital system so that it can attend to elective care. As my colleague, Ms O'Connor highlighted, the right thing to do is to make a significant investment in community services, keeping people at home and in care outside of the hospital. This will give the health system a chance to address many of the issues the Deputy highlighted. I am not trying to claim that those issues do not exist, because they do, but what is required is the continued pathway that we are on now, which consists of investment in community services, integration between acute and community care, extra capacity in the hospital system and extra recruitment. These are the components of what we want to set out next year. I am not going to tell the committee that this problem will be solved next year, because it will not, but it is a pathway that we have to continue with over the coming years.