Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Far from hiding behind the staff, we are standing with the staff. We are investing in the Irish public health service. The Government has approved a new contract offer, which has been made to hospital consultants. It is well recognised we need far more consultants in our system. We need them to be present at weekends, and we need over time to remove private healthcare from our public hospital system. The Minister, Deputy Donnelly, and his team in the Department of Health and in the HSE have done an excellent job in delivering a package we believe has the potential to be a game changer in the provision of consultant-led care in the public hospital system. It is now a matter for the representative bodies to consider whether they are going to accept that. We very much hope they do.

Deputy McDonald referred to home care. Some 20.5 million hours of home care support was delivered in 2021. The constraint is not funding, the constraint is staffing.

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