Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour) | Oireachtas source

As an aside, will the Taoiseach ask the Minister for Health or somebody, perhaps through NPHET, to sort out the issue arising over masks and visors? The misuse of visors across the country and, dare I say, in this House is wrong. It is not helping in our collective fight against Covid.

The issue I want to ask the Taoiseach about concerns our use of private hospitals. I have referred to this before. I have been banging on about it for a long time. Without a shadow of a doubt, part of the reason NPHET made its recommendation in recent days was concern over ICU beds. I realise the Taoiseach has answered the questions and I respect what the chief executive of the HSE, Mr. Paul Reid, is saying in this regard but surely it would be cost effective and the right thing for the State to purchase now at least one, if not two, private hospitals.

We are meant to be building two elective hospitals in this country anyway. We need capacity. We need ICU capacity, but we also need elective capacity.

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