Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy would be the first in this House to criticise me, rightly, if we did not have available bed capacity if a Covid surge came.

We need to get the best arrangement. As the facts change, we need to alter that. We are, however, going to need to keep some of that private capacity to help public patients. Otherwise the public health service will not be able to function in a Covid environment.

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