Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising that. I will take that up directly with the HSE. With regard to step-down or a delayed transfer of care, those figures have gone up. It is now well in excess of 500 on a daily basis. One of the big things that is driving this, as the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, said previously, was about half of the nursing homes were in the 28-day period post-outbreak, where there could be no discharge. Just in the last week, the HSE has changed that 28-day period to between seven and ten days. That will help. However, the point the Deputy makes is broader than that, which is regardless of that, we need additional step-down facilities as well.