Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Earlier I said 83 beds of the 190 have been approved. Running a live tracker here, I now believe it is 107 beds because 25 for Tallaght have now also been approved. Therefore 107 of the additional 190 we hope to open have now been approved. If we stay for the day we might get that figure up even further. It is 107 and we can keep the committee updated as the numbers come in.

I thank Deputy Durkan for his initiatives. We had a very good visit to Naas General Hospital last Thursday night. We saw a very hard-working management team and staff in a very busy environment. Thankfully that hospital has had a slight decrease in trolley numbers this year, on which the staff are to be commended. There has been a decrease in attendances at the ED this year, but a significant increase in attendances of people over the age of 75. When we were in that ED last week I was struck by the age profile. Further to Ms O'Connor's point, it raises the broader discussion about the profile of the people ending up in EDs and whether more can be done the help them not end up in them, through doing more in our nursing homes, through more of the statutory home care scheme and through enhanced primary care teams. That is the message I took away from our visit to Naas General Hospital last week.

The endoscopy unit needs to go to tender in early 2020, which is the intention. That will greatly increase the capacity for scopes. The very dedicated clinicians there have long been promised this. They were about to get it and then the economy crashed. That is badly needed. I was excited to hear that that would give rise to the possibility of building two extra wards which would also provide more capacity.

Deputy Durkan asked how we can get that waiting list to zero. He very kindly and fairly noted the progress we have made in reducing the number of people waiting for hospital operations. If we are very honest, we must acknowledge the number will never be zero, as the Deputy knows, because people will always be joining the list. It is much more important to focus on how long they are waiting. Many people, who go to see a doctor today and are referred for an operation, would not necessarily want the operation immediately.

The Sláintecare committee proposed that people should not wait longer than 12 weeks. When I became Minister, about 32% of people in 2017 were having their hospital operation in 12 weeks or less and that is now up to 42%. The right question for us all to ask is how we can get that 42% up to 100%.

We have discussed at length some of the ways we can do that.

Ms O'Connor may wish to add to what was said about CAMHS. Thankfully through the investment we have made in the new assistant psychology posts and the 20 psychology posts in primary care, we have 114 assistant psychologists now working in primary care - certainly funded posts - and we have 20 psychology posts in primary care since last year. We have seen a 20% reduction in the number of people waiting for child and adolescent mental health services. If it is the Deputy's child or mine, we need them in straightaway. Those lists are reducing and we need to build on that further.

One of the reasons for that reduction is that we are widening the range of services we are providing. Not everybody needs to go through the CAMHS. For some people an assistant psychologist might work. On the other end of the spectrum, we will open the Portrane hospital next year. We need to look at the entire range of mental health services available and not channel everybody through one route. We need to broaden the capacity through a variety of ways.