David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am very conscious of the most vulnerable people and I am very conscious they are people we have to protect over the next weeks and months. It is not good enough that the HSE is only finalising a plan. We have an unprecedented crisis facing us. Although we thought we saw chaos over recent weeks and months, unless this Government get its act together, unless a real, aggressive, robust plan is put in place to deal with the challenges facing our healthcare services in the next while, and unless that plan is as robust as it needs to be, then the Minister of State and the Government are failing in their duty.

We have a perfect storm coming at our health services. Our front-line healthcare workers need support. People need to know they will get treatment and that the capacity will be there. I did not hear one word in the Minister of State's answer about how many additional beds or staff will be made available, what capacity will be leveraged in the private sector or how we are going to make sure we can deal with both Covid and non-Covid care. All I got is a statement of the obvious and no plan.

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