Michael Harty (Clare, Independent)
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I thank Dr. Keegan. I have a few questions for Dr. Wren. How will the demographic changes predicted by the ESRI be reflected in the demand for care? We all see such changes happening at the moment. It is almost an actuarial equation. Given a certain population and a certain age profile within that population, we know that there will be a certain number of strokes, hip replacements, heart attacks and predictable illnesses. We do not know who will get those illnesses, but we can predict within 1% or 2% the percentage of people who are likely to present with them. That must be a source of important information when determining what is needed to meet the level of demand that is going to come down the line. It seems that we never actually supply the service that we are predicting is going to be required. We are always chasing, which means there is always an unmet need. How does the ESRI envisage that the health service will respond to the predictable nature of what is coming down the line, in light of the failure to provide the infrastructure to deal with that?