Neasa Hourigan (Dublin Central, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses. They have heard it a few times at this committee on health. We are very aware of the amount of work they are doing and how hard they are working. They are trying to deal with a very difficult situation.

I will return to the issue of beds and staffing. I want to unpack a bit around the bed and staffing outlook for 2021. In some of the opening statements today we heard there were 274 beds planned for 2021, which is reliant on staffing and recruitment. Could we hear a little more about this? Is recruitment increasing or decreasing at the moment? What happens in the event that we are unable to attract staff to those beds and at what level do we think this will hit those 274 beds?