Dr. Mick Molloy:

That is a question Ms Ní Sheaghdha would probably address better than we in the IMO. However, looking specifically at the hospitals, there have been increases in hospital staff over the period, but we have been going through that Covid scenario where we have had buddy staff working arrangements for bringing Covid patients from one ward to another, up to radiography, into X-ray suites or into operating theatre suites. We have hired a lot more cleaning staff to deal with Covid. It has not been the ideal time to look at how efficiently the hospitals work because it has been a completely different work practice with the personal protective equipment, PPE, and having people monitor people putting PPE on and off, which technically is not a very productive job but is necessary during a public health emergency.