Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chairman and Deputy Cullinane. Between us all, we could not overstate the challenge in terms of the waiting lists, the unmet care and the missed care. The challenges we face are very significant. We are responding in various ways but, obviously, within a very challenging Covid context.

The first place to look is the national service plan, which is now up online. We have broken the additional funding into a few different areas. On increasing capacity, for example, we are looking at an additional 1,146 inpatient beds, increasing the critical care beds - up to 321 is the plan for the end of the year - 135 sub-acute beds and 1,250 community beds, including 600 new rehabilitation beds, and the very significant staffing that has to go with all of that. There are big capacity increases as well in community care, social care, mental health, disability, wellness, etc. I am probably out of time but I am happy to send the committee a detailed note and engage further with the committee.

Could I end this response by asking something of the committee in return? The scale of the challenge we face, in terms of the waiting lists we already had coupled with everything that has happened with Covid, is completely unprecedented and nobody has all the right answers. I would very much value the committee's view. I do not know if the committee will hold sessions or, indeed, has held sessions on this. If the committee has views, that it would like to sit down on, do a report on, etc., that the Government, the Department or the HSE should be taking on board, I ask it to let us know because the task ahead is bigger than any one entity and the more people we have trying to solve it, the better.