Peter Fitzpatrick (Louth, Independent) | Oireachtas source

In the programme for Government promises were made to develop the health service into a state-of-the-art service. Part of this was to increase the capacity and number of ICU beds. Obviously, when preparing the programme for Government, none of us were aware of the devastating effects that the Covid pandemic would bring upon us.

Will the Taoiseach confirm how many operational and permanent ICU beds were available at the end of 2019, just before the outbreak of the Covid pandemic? How many operational and permanent ICU beds are currently available to the health service? Will the Taoiseach confirm that the current number of available beds in ICUs is permanent and will remain in place once we get over the worst of the pandemic?

I am concerned that the Government has spent vast sums of money fighting the effects of the Covid pandemic. An additional €4.4 billion was spent on the health service to fight the pandemic. We need assurances that this additional investment in the health services will reap benefits for the long term.

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