Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will speak about both the winter plan and next year's budget. The winter plan is a big plan worth €600 million, which makes it approximately 20 times bigger than previous winter plans. The budget for next year is the biggest funding package, but it is also the biggest set of targets in terms of new beds, new hires, community home care, etc. What we have done with the money is worked with the HSE to put a package together that we believe is right at the edge of what is achievable. The question was less around what we could do with this much money, it was more how far we think we could go for the winter and through next year. For example, the question on critical care beds was not how many of them we could have for this much money, it was what is the total number of additional beds we think we can get into the system next year and we will fund that. The flip side of that is because we are pushing on every single lever, or certainly many of them, in terms of beds, acute beds, community beds, eHealth, new drugs and hiring, inevitably, they are all stretch targets and there may be some of them that will be hard to hit. Even if we had more money, the view is that it would not really be possible to deliver more because there are only so many people one can hire at any one time. There are only so many beds one can build at any one time. We feel we have pushed to the edge of what is possible.