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

That is cold comfort to people who are on waiting lists for various community services or hospital services for years, and especially children. The waiting lists are just scandalous.

For the last six months I have raised the issue of workforce planning and I have seen no evidence of any serious workforce planning going on either in the Department or in the HSE. We were promised reports on what was going on by Mr. Paul Reid but they never materialised. We raised workforce planning and had a special meeting about it. The Minister's Secretary General and Mr. Paul Reid spoke about recruitment and not workforce planning, which is a major problem. There is no long-term or even medium-term planning going on for the workforce.

My last question is on the Covid spend and has two aspects. Last week, the Minister said that the figure for PPE was €118 million and now we are told it is €151 million. Where did the €33 million come from?