Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

That is true. It is significant. The enabling legislation was sanctioned yesterday and we will create public health consultant contracts for the first time.

The other aspect is that I announced a few hours ago that we will double our public health workforce. The HSE will begin that recruitment in the coming two weeks.

I thank Senators for their comments on public health and the need for us to increase our screening and public health capacity. The announcements made today are relevant to that and will go a long way to helping that to be done in the coming months and years.