Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I could not agree more. The whole approach is that we create the new Sláintecare contract but, on the Deputy's point, that is not enough. I would like to see things around the Sláintecare contract like funding for research and clinical trials and some of the things the consultants do not have access to at the moment. That will be part of the talks. At the same time as putting the Sláintecare contract in place, and hopefully hiring 600 new consultants this year, we are expanding acute beds, critical care beds, community beds, step-down beds and rehab beds. We are expanding the safe staffing model for nursing and the whole point is to take the pressure off the system so that our clinicians can do the job they want to do, have access to their patients to assess them when they need to, diagnose them when they need to and either treat them with the drugs they need access to or in operating theatres.