Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputies. The €26 million for the winter has been released. I met the CEO of the Health Service Executive this week and have been in very regular contact with him, as the Deputies can imagine. I have also spoken to every hospital group CEO in respect of Cork and Limerick and all the other hospitals throughout the country. The winter plan will be published by the HSE next week. The special delivery unit, which is a national part of the HSE that goes into our hospitals and assists hospitals in difficulty, is on the way to Cork. It has already been in Galway this week where it has made some improvements.

On nurse recruitment, of course Paul Reid has not said that nobody can be hired or put any freeze on recruitment. It is just very simple. We can only recruit for a funded post. There are 600 more nurses working in the health service this year than last year, and I expect that number to continue.

My plan for Limerick this year, in addition to extra community supports, home care, transitional care and the likes, is also to try to get the second MRI in situ. As I said to Deputy Neville a few moments ago, the tender for that concludes this week. The 60-bed ward block is now well under construction.

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