Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have a plethora of questions but I do not propose to ask all of them. I will put them down for written answer, which is probably the best way of doing it. My first question is on those who have other conditions who are now part of a backlog awaiting attention. Have all of them had online discussions with their GP or consultant? If only a portion of them have had such discussions, what is that portion? That is important in terms of dealing with the backlog. Arising from that, what plans are in place to handle that backlog? If there are 800,000 on a list of some description there has to be a means of breaking down the numbers, attending to some of them more urgently than others and so on. How is it proposed that that will be done?

Also, as we move towards the start-up of business again and all the community has been inoculated, are we aware of the fact that there will be a greater opportunity for health workers to emigrate to other jurisdictions? Are we prepared for that and what are we prepared to do to try to ensure that does not happen?

The last question is on student nurses to which Senator Hoey referred already. I find it difficult to understand how the existence of Covid-19 has not been regarded as an emergency in terms of the delivery of health services.

The question is whether the emergency is of sufficient urgency and severity to invoke other ways and means of dealing with the question of student nurses, who have a very understandable case and who feel more than a little disappointed. They feel obscured by the activity around them when compared with the UK and EU. I note the points made by the Minister on the higher level of pay and so forth but that does not take away from the fact that we are in this jurisdiction and we need to look at the matter again.