Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

-----through it. I have raised this directly with the chief executive of the HSE in recent days. We cannot have a situation whereby the new cath lab remains closed on the basis of additional beds. University Hospital Waterford got about 100 extra beds just before Covid arrived so whatever needs to be done locally needs to be done in order to get that lab open. I am supportive of adding the extra beds. There is no problem with that but we will not have a situation whereby the cath lab remains closed, even though it is fully staffed and ready to go, until these six or eight beds are fully in place. We need to move on and do it in parallel.