Dr. Peadar Gilligan:

Absolutely. It is important that we make the people working in that challenging environment feel valued, and the way we speak about them is incredibly important. The way we remunerate them is also incredibly important, as we have also referenced today.

Ehealth is an area of particular interest to me. We have made a lot of progress with regard to telemedicine in stroke care and acute coronary care. There is scope for further development. However, many hospitals have IT systems that are falling over or do not have IT systems at all, because there has not been capital investment in the hardware, software or staffing required. That is an area for investment, and could help us into the future.

Deputy O'Reilly referred to the NTPF. The fund advantaged certain patients who have been appropriate to receive care there. Our problem with it is that we are taking money from an under-resourced system to pay the private sector to do what should be deliverable within the public sector. That is what we have to get right. It is a sticking plaster. It will not be sustainable in the future, and not enough people will benefit if we continue with that model of care. We need to invest adequately in the system in general.

I refer to the issue of the mental health services staff and who looks after them. The staff members are looking after each other. The nursing and medical staff, the health care assistants. porters and security staff all talk to each other. We try to support each other through the situation. Many hospitals also provide counselling through their psychology services if they are in a position to do so. However, if we want to care for our staff, we have to get the overcrowding issue right. By doing that, we will enable them and facilitate them in caring for their patients. That is what we are there for and that is what we want to deliver on.

I would love a seamless, flawless delivery of care, but I would be happy with a safe delivery of care. To achieve safe delivery of care, I need to have a bed available to the patients for whom I am providing care and who needs hospitalisation. I need to have a trolley available for the patient I need to assess within the emergency department, and, to have that, I need capacity in the system which the political system needs to deliver for us. That is why we are here.