Dr. Anne-Marie Brooks:

The building blocks capital grant under the national development plan, NDP, is for 2023 to 2025. It is €69 million in total over that three-year period. There is €20 million next year and additional funding the year after, which will be used to address unmet need and areas of undersupply.

On capital and supply management, core funding has already proven to be a very good lever in addressing capacity issues in the sector. We saw that in the first year. In year 2 of core funding, €8 million was set aside to fund a 3% gross incapacity, which has materialised. The Minister has secured additional funding in year 3, €9 million of which will be used to improve capacity and increase it by another 3%. The sector is expanding. What we have seen through the Tusla data is that we have 113 more new services, net, to date this year. There are very strong signs that the sector is expanding and more services are opening.