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

The Deputy is correct to say that we received advice on Thursday and Sunday. A lot has been done in public service and about capacity in acute services since the first lockdown in March. What is increasingly happening is that non-Covid-19 issues are being dealt with. That is why quite a substantial number of ICU beds are being used - they are predominantly being used for non-Covid purposes. That is the reality. With the winter initiative included, we are looking at a 30% increase in ICU capacity. ICU is not just about the provision of a bed, it obviously also comes with a large complement of staff.

There will also be substantial increases in the numbers of general hospital beds. Including the measures in the winter initiative, an additional 1,400 beds will have been created in our general hospital system. I think it has been overstated that the system is run down, although it has challenges. The health system managed the first phase of the pandemic well within its capacity. The HSE is clear that it has the capacity to deal with the current situation. It will obviously have to watch the growth in positive cases, hospital admissions and admissions to ICU. There are many hospitals around the country that have no Covid patients in their ICUs at the moment. That is true of many hospitals around the country and must be factored in. Quite a lot of counties will be aggrieved that they are at level 3 because people there will feel they ought to have stayed at level 2, given their numbers. We decided to take on board the advice from NPHET that there was a growth trajectory that needed to be arrested. People in counties such as Tipperary, Waterford, Mayo and Kerry will be looking at their numbers of infection and wondering why are they going to level 3. I understand that. It is a severe hit for the hospitality sector in those counties and parts of others.

Moving to level 3 has very significant implications and impacts for the hospitality, tourism, arts and culture sectors in the counties that up to now were not at level 3 - those outside Dublin and Donegal. Could one imagine what it would be like if we had moved to level 5 by midnight tonight in terms of the economic impact, the impact on jobs and so on? We have to take the broader picture into consideration. I will not pre-empt the budget but in the budget we will look to see if we can do something more specific for people in certain categories of work or sectors. The pandemic unemployment payment was originally designed as a 12-week scheme and was rushed into this House, and everybody agreed with it in the context of it being a temporary scheme. It is now being extended to April, along with the wage subsidy scheme. By April, €5.2 billion will have been spent on the pandemic unemployment payment. That is an enormous sum of money for just one social welfare payment. Social welfare spending overall will go well beyond €30 billion by next April. We have to consider the financial and economic impacts well beyond April 2021 and we are now factoring in what the situation will be to the end of 2021 in terms of the economic and fiscal impacts of Covid-19.

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