Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I must resist the attempt to underplay and undermine the progress that has been made in ramping up key aspects of the health service. The testing and tracing capacity has been significantly enhanced with an onshore laboratory capacity for 100,000 tests and 2,000 per day offshore.

We are currently increasing capacity onshore for November and December and we will continue to have offshore capacity during the winter period. As such, there has been a very significant ramping-up of the testing situation. A total of 90% of our tests are completed end to end in less than three days, more than 91% of GP referrals get an appointment in less than 24 hours, more than 95% of people get the result less than 48 hours following the swabbing appointment and overall end to end, the period between the referral and the end of tracing median is less than two days. There has been substantial progress and it is time to acknowledge that. It is not where it was in March; it is far better. There are higher volumes. We are testing far more now than we did in the early part of the pandemic and that has to be accepted.

On the hospital system, there has been a 30% increase in ICUs once the winter initiative is implemented: 25% since March and a further 17 as a result of the winter initiative. Admittedly it will be challenging to get the staff but the funding has been made available. It is the largest funding for a winter initiative ever in the history of the health service. It is designed to try to increase capacity both on the ICU side and also on the general hospital side, to increase staffing and to release healthcare staff who had come to the rescue in the early phase of the pandemic back to their front-line services. Substantial recruitment is under way and as I said earlier concerning contact tracers and swabbers, very significant progress is being made on that front. No proposal was left on any desk on private sector capacity. The HSE has been continually negotiating and that is ongoing. There is a bridging agreement of €25 million. It has completed a new procurement agreement to deal with diagnostics and general services, and negotiations are ongoing about need in the event of a surge.

The PUP was originally meant as a 12-week provision. It has been opened to new entrants and, therefore, anyone who is laid off as a result of us going to level 3 will be able to avail of it; it has been extended out to April of next year. The Government has to look at beyond April 2021 to make the PUP sustainable. It also has to look at other social welfare recipients. There are 213,000 people on jobseeker's allowance on €203 per week and then there are carers and lone parents and the whole area of child poverty. There is a range of payments across social protection that we have got to look at as well in addition to all of the other commitments. Deputies are having an each-way bet. On the one hand, Deputy McDonald talks about thousands being laid off in hospitality because of a Government decision. Covid has forced that decision. The Government does not willingly lay off people or cause sectors to close. Other Members will say we should have gone to level 5, which would have meant hundreds of thousands of people being laid off overnight. These are the calls and choices that Government has to make.

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