Ms Angela Fitzgerald:

As Deputy Hourigan said I will "unpack" it. We started with a target of 11,046 beds in 2020. During the first wave of Covid we opened 426 of those beds on a temporary basis. Thankfully we are now in a position to keep those open. The link with staffing is very relevant. Obviously, if we know the beds are opened permanently then we can attract permanent staff. This is very important.

The second thing we did was to look to open the balance of beds. By the end of last year we had a total of 677 additional beds opened. That included the 426. This leaves us with a further number of beds to open this year, which is about 470. The plan is to try to open half of those in the first quarter and the remainder will be over the year. We have been successful in being able to get most of those beds open on time. To the extent there are beds in the back end of the year it is because they are largely dependent on capital works. The Deputy has raised an important point.

The objective is to get additionality, and one of the challenges we face right now is that, typically, in any one year we would have up to 100 out of our 11,000 beds closed, either because of infection control issues or refurbishment. At the moment, that number is 600, so while we are opening beds, we are also challenged every day by beds that are closed because of outbreaks. They are closed necessarily because of safety reasons. I hope that as we get ahead with this vaccine, what it will give us is that 1,146 beds. I am happy to give a breakdown on the 66 critical care beds, if the Deputy wishes. In summary, 40 beds were opened temporarily under the arrangements in March and up to May and we are opening those permanently. We have 33 of those beds opened permanently. As Mr. Woods said, we are stretching to open other ones on a temporary basis in response to the surge, but the objective is that by the end of quarter 1 we would have the 46 beds open. The 20 beds that are in the back end of this year are again due to capital works. The 66 additional beds will give-----