Ms Helen McDaid:

It is important to note that three levels of palliative care are being provided. The 20-bed unit at University Hospital Waterford is level 3, which means staff there have a full-time focus on palliative care. The level 2 service delivered through community services and older persons in the three locations, which totals six beds, is where staff may have a diploma or interest in palliative care but have other duties during the day. What is also important is that level 1 palliative care is more of a generic palliative care piece. All our nursing homes and community services have the ability to take short-stay admissions for a level 1 service. There is availability across the services.

When we talk about the six beds across south Tipperary, we are talking about level-2 specific. Reference was made to one bed being available in St. Anthony's. There have been many discussions and I appreciate there are a lot of asks and requests regarding how many beds there will be. For the record, there will be a minimum of two.