Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for those questions. On capacity, I agree 100% with the Deputy. We are in the middle of a very comprehensive planning exercise to bring in a winter plan unlike any that has been seen before. I agree fully with the Deputy that before Covid-19 arrived here, we had the longest waiting list anywhere in Europe, the lowest number of consultants, the second lowest number of hospital beds and all sorts of other capacity issues, which I am on the record as being critical of over many years. My position on that has not changed whatsoever.

On top of that, there has been a significant increase in the waiting lists because of the pausing of elective care. On top of that again, there is an undiagnosed amount in the community as well because referrals into the system are very low. I received a report this morning from the HSE on the reduction in capacity. It believes there will be a 30% reduction in operating theatres, a 30% reduction in scopes and a serious reduction in outpatient appointments.

The scale of this is like nothing we have ever faced before. Rather than coming in here with something that has not been thought through, what I did as soon as I was appointed was to meet the HSE and the Department and ask them to work together to put a comprehensive plan together and to plug Sláintecare firmly into it because its team have identified a very large number of innovations, some of which have already been brought in, such as e-prescribing. I will be discussing that at length with Members of this House, be that at the health committee or wherever is appropriate to do that.

I agree fully with the Deputy and the reason I did not go into that today is simply because this session in the Dáil was statements on Covid-19. I am very happy to come back to the House or meet the health spokespersons and get into that in much more detail. I fully accept the Deputy’s push there.

On the pay issues, I agree there are agreed pay issues - for example, the nursing agreement from 2019, which not only included pay but an acceleration to safe staffing levels, much of which has not happened yet. Some of it should have happened and some of it did not happen out of necessity because of Covid-19. I met the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, INMO, the Psychiatric Nurses Association, PNA, and SIPTU to discuss these exact issues. I have already spoken to the Department and the HSE about how we can accelerate what has been agreed. Next week I am meeting with the Irish Medical Organisation, IMO, and the Irish Hospital Consultants Association, IHCA, to discuss exactly the same thing for doctors. I hear the Deputy loud and clear and I am giving the same message to the Department and the HSE, that the first thing we have to do is to implement what has already been agreed.

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