Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. Gloster. On behalf of the committee, I would like to be associated with the remarks relating to Mr. Ray Mitchell. He has been extremely helpful and courteous to the committee down through the years. He also came back and engaged and has been a vital structure between us and the Department. On behalf of the committee, I thank Mr. Mitchell very much for all his help and support. I wish him well in the next stage of his life.

I welcome Senator Maria Byrne, who is substituting for Senator Martin Conway.

There was mention of emergency departments. Before we go into questions, I want to outline my experience over the summer. Just a week ago, a brother-in-law of mine was brought in for a suspected heart attack. While there were challenges within the emergency department, he is now, thankfully, at home and recovering from that incident. I thank the staff there. I also had a difficult period regarding a brother-in-law's partner who was in an end-of-life situation. We were in St. James's Hospital. As regards the help and support of staff there, many of them went way beyond normal support. We will always be grateful to the staff for the support and help they gave us during that particularly difficult period. He was a short period in accident and emergency, but everything that needed to be done was done. I really thank the staff in St. James's Hospital for all their support and help. That is just a private note from me on that.

I will open up the floor for questions now. Deputy Durkan will lead off.