Mr. Robert Watt:

There is €200 million in the access to care fund which is to fund additional activity, mostly insourced within the public system and then reform of pathways and other initiatives. As part of the waiting list initiative we are looking at driving additional activities. Like all parts of the system, the NTPF was affected by Covid-19 in the early part of the year. We are back up thanks to the efforts of people in the public system in referring patients and because of capacity now available in the private system we are back up to the weekly targets of removals, working with the NTPF.

On the thalidomide issue, that had to do with slower than expected drawdown due to the mediation process being slower because of Covid-19. It is €15,000 lower than was projected for the actual spend in 2020.