Mr. Mark Darmody:

I might come in because there are a lot of technical issues there. Let us talk about the pace things are going at. We now know that with regard to pace, it is a Titanic waiting to happen, where 10,000 extra are going to go on that list. That is not us saying it or anyone else speculating; that is now coming from the HSE. We are talking about a serious Titanic by Christmas time.

What shocked me is that the Taoiseach does not buy into this urgency and national emergency. We sat opposite him. He just did not buy into that aspect, and said it is only words. Cara said it to me afterwards that he is basically saying that using the words "national emergency" is only using physical words. The problem with that is, imagine going home to your child tonight and it is their birthday, as Cara said, and you say to them, "I am not going to wish you a happy birthday. It is only words; it does not really matter". It would not even wash in your own house.

I got into him about the private assessments and things like that, and about capacity. He conceded 100% that they have not knocked on the doors. I said to him that when it is put out there by the HSE and the Government that we have reached capacity in private capacity and that we have not even knocked on people's doors, he conceded that. To be fair to him, he actually took on board-----