Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The next question, in the name of Deputy Cullinane, relates to exactly that matter. We have two plans, which are, the short-term plan and the multi-annual plan. The direction I have given to the Department and HSE is clear. We must have structural change such that, month by month, the trolley numbers we are seeing come down. What happened last year because of the impact of Covid - and I have spoken to health ministers from around Europe who have experienced the same things in their countries - was that demand went up. There was unmet need; there were probably late diagnoses. There was an enormous level of additional presentation to emergency departments. That was the case here and in other countries. The numbers went up and up every month such that by the time we got to October, November and December, the system was simply overstretched. We are looking to trend downwards towards winter not just through one-off funding but with structural changes so that we go into the winter in a better place.

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