Mr. Paul Reid:

I thank the Deputy for his kind opening comments, which always mean a great deal to the people working in our services. Regarding the waiting lists, the service plan has a specific reference to a €200 million allocation to enhance access to care plans and to give funding to a whole range of initiatives to address waiting lists. The plan launched by the Minister set out a range of actions. In summary, these are a combination of ways in which we set out to strengthen capacity in the public service. Equally, there are ways in which we plan to utilise the National Treatment Purchase Fund, NTPF, and the private hospital system for increased capacity in this period. Additionally, there is a suite of measures to reform clinical pathways in respect of how people receive their care. This is the approach and the actions contained in the plan.

We have had a horrendous four months of impacts on the hospital system from Covid-19. Those impacts affected many of the actions we had set out. We have a range of actions, however, that set out measures in the context of recurring funding to be allocated, and that will, ultimately, require further funding in the service plan for next year. There are also actions that require only non-recurring funding. Some of the actions to be undertaken are dedicated to addressing the issue raised by the Deputy in the other part of his question regarding people with special needs. This provision has been allocated in the context of some elements of our community. Additionally, a portion of this allocation of funds will be primarily targeted towards the assessment of needs process and to addressing the challenges we have in respect of disability services.

Therefore, a range of actions and initiatives will be undertaken, including reform of how we deliver services. An example would be people receiving care perhaps not having to wait for a specialist advanced nurse practitioner, ANP. These are some of the ways we are looking at this aspect. I refer to new ways of dealing with outpatients and inpatient day cases and of doing scopes.