Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

This is my first outing here, so I do not want to disappoint the Deputy at this early stage of our exchanges. The Deputy will know the figure within the next fortnight. In fact, she will know when I know. Obviously, we have to look at what did and did not work last year and what we did not look at last year that we should look at this year. That is the message I delivered to the emergency department task force on Monday of this week. The important message for the HSE is that the solution to this problem is not one that solely rests in the acute hospitals. It has to involve the primary care divisions of the HSE, social care and the home care packages that were discussed by the Minister of State, Deputy McEntee, with Deputy Kelleher earlier. We will have clarity on this matter for Deputy O'Reilly in the next fortnight or so. I largely agree with what she has said about bed capacity. I stress that we need to identify exactly where the beds are needed. We intend to work with everybody on this. As I have said, we also need to look at delayed discharges because the infrastructure in the community is sometimes inadequate.

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