Mr. Paul Reid:

The Deputy is correct that there is no doubt the waiting lists are a function well beyond the period of Covid and the cyberattack. As Ms O'Connor stated, I think everybody would acknowledge that the impacts on the health system in the past 18 months have been severe. However, those problems were legacy issues that we are going to approach.

As regards confidence in the health service, during Covid we have tracked some of this in terms of the health service response to Covid overall. That showed that public trust and confidence in the health service strengthened. I fully accept the challenges we face are momentous but the commitment from the HSE and from the funding we have received this year is setting out to address those challenges.