Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

In response to a question from me, the Minister said that last year 75 public beds were opened. Perhaps we could get an indication as to whether they were left open or will be reopened. People want to know that.

When I say, for example, "The likes of which have never been seen before", they are not my words. Rather, they are the words of a nurse working in Limerick. Does the Minister have a plan to staff these hospitals? I will not get into a debate about whether a ban on recruitment is a moratorium or something else. At the moment there is difficulty recruiting. Nurse managers will tell the Minister they have difficulty recruiting at local level. Does the Minister have a plan to staff those additional beds?

In response to another question from me, the Minister told me a review on lessons learned to process information, the details of the actions and outputs of the winter plan, including a breakdown of the amount spent and the aspects of the plan, will take place at the end of the winter period. That referred to the money spent on PR.

On the money spent on private beds, the Minister said he would conduct a review. Have those reviews been conducted? Will the Minister share that information with us? Will that learning be incorporated into the winter plan, whenever it is published? I welcome that the Minister said we will have it in the coming days. I assume we will, fingers crossed, have the information before we return here next week.

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