Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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I have two final questions. The witnesses talked about temporary measures, which are still even according to the budget 81%, or if businesses are excluded, 71%. I am not sure if there is any concern that there are still so many untargeted measures in the budget. The witnesses provided a really good chart in terms of health staffing and using the growth in the numbers who have reached ages over 65 over the last number of years. We also see that the minimum targets set out in the national service plan are almost 2,000 below targets, forgetting about the maximum, which are about 4,500 below targets. However, we can see that mental health is 390 below target and disability is 590 below target. Older people is 660 below target at the end of September. They say this will have implications for Sláintecare and service levels. Are they concerned by that?

Second, the growth of health staff has kept in line with the growth of over-65s, but when you look deeper as shown in this assessment, the biggest growth has happened in management and administration. Where we have seen growth lagging way behind demographic growth has been in the area of nurses, midwifery and some other sectors. I want to hear their comments on that.

Finally, I think this will be of interest to anybody concerned about the housing crisis. It is one of the big risks in the economy because it is no longer just a housing issue and is affecting many other parts of our society. The witnesses talked about how capital spending is falling way behind projections. They gave us a figure where we need to see an increase of €2.1 billion extra capital spending per year to return to the original share of capital spending in the economy consistent with what was outlined in the national development plan. The Irish Fiscal Advisory Council agreed at the time that it was an appropriate level of spending. I am wondering if, just as with the budget, it has changed its tune now? Is it going to give us 5% as a proportion of GNI*? We are falling behind significantly year on year in terms of capital spending. There may be some reasons for it stemming from the pandemic and other issues. However, it also made the point very clearly that because of cost increases we are getting less bang for our buck. There are a lot of challenges there and it was pointed out well in the report, so I am asking for comments on that. I thank the witnesses and I appreciate their work and their time at the committee.