Mr. Stephen Mulvany:

The Deputy is correct it is a perpetual cycle. It is a problem that, unfortunately, happens every year in this country and others. We are not making excuses. This year is worse than previous years, but the conditions are different with the respiratory illnesses that are circulating. That does not take away from the fact this is unacceptable for both staff and patients, and it has happened every year I have been in the health service.

As to what the way out of it is and why the situation is the case, as we know and as Sláintecare tells us, the health service is the wrong size and shape. That does not help us in the next three or four weeks or the next year or two, but we are on a journey and it is called Sláintecare. Government is investing in the different components of that and will need to keep investing to ensure the system has sufficient capacity, but it must be sufficient capacity in the right places, and it must start in the community. That is why more of the investment has, correctly, gone into the community area and into general practice as well as into hospitals. It is also about better integrated care, which Sláintecare again talks about with the move to the six regions. Then there is the piece that is probably not quite as visible in Sláintecare, namely, improved systems thinking. We need to get better at the overall operations management of processes. That is difficult to do when there is not sufficient capacity or staff, but it is essential nonetheless. No one of those things will resolve it.