Mr. Paul Reid:

I welcome the Chairman's comments about trying to bring some balance into it. He is right there are great innovations, pilots and some further roll-outs throughout the country. Some of them have been supported by the Sláintecare integration fund, which we have not spoken about today, where we pilot a number of initiatives and then, based on evaluation of their success, roll them out throughout the country. It is difficult to get public interest through the media in some of these successes but they are there. Of the ones the Deputy referenced, for example, the pathfinder project in place in Beaumont Hospital, there is an equivalent in St. Vincent's University Hospital and Mr. Canavan will start rolling out pathfinder in Galway. They really do work. We are trying to shift our investment and care because it is about hospital avoidance.

How we see that continue to happen is through our increased focus on enhanced community care. A range of initiatives come under the umbrella of such care. Yes, we will have to keep investing in our acute hospital services but we need a parallel stream to invest in community services, many of which the Deputy listed, including the one I mentioned earlier in respect of nursing homes. Scanning equipment in nursing homes is the way to go.

We have to shift our services on an annual basis. We cannot do it all together.