Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

The indications are that there is a huge issue about lack of capacity. We know that 1.6 million people in Ireland have had Covid. That is just the diagnosed people, so it is presumably an underestimate. Even if the percentage suffering from long Covid is small, we are still talking about very big numbers. I do not have the confidence from what I am hearing today that there is the capacity there to address that issue. Obviously, if there are waiting lists of five months, there is not an adequate capacity.

Dr. Ní Bhriain said their funding is secured. Is that secured for the existing service or is there is a stretch in that, if they have to gear up and recruit significant numbers of additional health professionals?