David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chairman. I want to make one broad point first and I then have a number of specific questions on targets that were set. Equally, specific issues are referred to in the Minister’s own briefing document.

As I said earlier, it is very important to set ambitious targets. I would hope, if I was in the same position as the Minister for Health, that I would want to push the system to its limits and would want to get as much done as quickly as I could. That would involve recruiting as many staff, opening as many beds and getting as much capital funding and capacity into the system as possible. Obviously there will always be situations where targets simply may not been met for whatever reason. There is a big difference between setting ambitious targets and setting targets that the Minister may know simply cannot be met. People see that then as a wish list and it undermines confidence. That is why there is commentary on some of the staffing commitments that were given on bed numbers, for example, and on acute inpatient beds going back to 2021, when a target of 1,146 beds announced. I do not believe that we are even going to reach that target by the end of this year. That creates problems for people across the board.

We have touched on where we have people who cannot get access to home helps because the staff are not there. That is the reality. The funding has been made available but the staffing is not there to provide a great deal of the services. We see this in respect of children with special needs who cannot get access to speech and language therapy, occupational therapy, physiotherapy or child psychology, because, again, the posts are not there.

There must be a joined-up approach. The targets being set must actually be deliverable and matched with workforce planning. Otherwise, they are fake targets and wish lists, which undermines confidence. I hope that, in whatever plan comes tomorrow, the targets are actually real and that we are not again setting targets we know in our hearts will not be met. People now expect we will meet the targets we set as opposed to the targets we set not being met, which we have seen so often with health targets.

I will turn to one specific issue the Minister mentioned earlier, the issue of paediatric orthopaedics and the total funding package he recently announced. What was the total figure?