Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I do not think we ever did that in Greystones at any stage. We will have to ask Deputy Donnelly as he is at little bit older than me.

I thank Deputy O'Reilly for the questions. I had a really good meeting with the INMO and SIPTU health on Monday and I am due to meet both again next week. We have started to discuss with them the issues raised by the Deputy on how we prepare to provide non-Covid care and for winter in the knowledge that the virus will be with us. Many of the issues the Deputy has raised are issues they have started to discuss with me.

I will get the Deputy a the breakdown of those extra beds no problem and I will send it to her in writing. The Deputy asked me whether I can give a guarantee the beds will remain open. If I remain as Minister, that is certainly my intention. I am conscious of the fact that at some point the House will elect a new Government and these will obviously be matters for that Government. There is no doubt that we will need all of the extra capacity we have opened and that we will need more. The conversation I had with the unions, although they did not need me to explain it because they know it because they are on the front line, was that it will be about more than this. It will be about a new model of care. It will be about all of the things we speak about every year but we are really going to have to actually do them. I refer to moving care out of the hospitals and keeping as many people as possible out of them, looking at how we try to interrupt the flow of older people who end up in hospital every winter or reassessing how some procedures can be done on an outpatient basis. There is a big body of work that will need to be done in this regard.

Yes, the safe staffing levels will have to be adhered to. I use the figure of approximately 20%, but up to one quarter of beds is a real possibility in terms of infection control. This is something the CEO of the HSE is bottoming out at present. We discussed it only this week.

With regard to non-Covid care, and I acknowledge the many times the Deputy has raised screening with me, I want to be careful. I do not intend to give any commitment on the floor of the Dáil regarding how the programme will be resumed because it has to be clinician-led. In the past, perhaps I have given commitments that people have been critical of in respect of screening and I will not do that again. It has to be clinician-led. The Deputy's point on the need for an information programme for women, and for men who use some of the screening programmes, is vital. I would like the Irish Cancer Society, the 221+ group and the Marie Keating Foundation to be invited to meet those who operate the screening service.

Many of them have been in contact and I have asked for that to happen.

On the issue of pubs and restaurants, I cannot get ahead of the Government decision-making process. We will have to consider this as we get to the further phases. I will come back to the Deputy on the curry and mushy peas. I will write to her about that.

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