Correct.

The Deputy asked quite a number of questions. I will comment on that relating to the tender. The HSE is working with the various sectors in order to have the tender in place for 1 May. This tender is going to be different. As the Deputy will be aware, I set up the strategic workforce advisory group last year. The group made 16 recommendations to encourage home care workers back into the market. This tender will reflect the living wage in regard to tendering out to private organisations and will also reflect travel …

I thank Deputy Wynne for the question. I cannot comment on an individual case. If the Deputy wants to speak to me offline, I will see what we can do. There can be complex cases in relation to dual diagnosis. The multidisciplinary team in CAMHS will determine whether the child is suitable to be looked after by them. Sometimes, in relation to autism, it might be primary care. I will talk to the Deputy, if she wants to give me the details, and I will see if we can do anything to help.

I thank the Deputy for his question, for his continued advocacy for nursing homes and older people and for all the work he does on this. The Covid pandemic bore down very hard on our older people, especially those in nursing homes. In the early days, there were a lot of learnings relating to personal protective equipment, PPE, infection prevention and control and best practice. I also welcome the fact that there will be an inquiry into what happened in respect of Covid over the past three years because there is a l…

Sinn Féin has had its chance.

People could be living there now.

That is rubbish.

That is not true. This is unbelievable.

Cualanor.

Everybody agrees that the pandemic bore down hardest on people living in nursing homes. Unfortunately, we lost a great number of people in nursing homes as a result of Covid. I suppose what was so disappointing about what was outlined last night is that was during the third wave of Covid, we had the vaccine in place, we had routine testing every two weeks and we had put in place infection prevention and control measures. I have met those families from Ballynoe and I know how distressed and upset they are, but it wa…

I look forward to the fact that we will have a review of what happened during Covid. One of the measures we put in play - it was the former Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, who put it in play - was the expert panel report on nursing homes and there were short-, medium- and long-term recommendations in that. We are following to the letter in regard to Covid response teams on the ground. There was a very significant amount of additional capacity provided. Some €149 million was available for Covid outbreak assistan…

We all prioritised-----

-----across the Department, across the HSE and across Government to ensure that those in nursing homes received a vaccine first.

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. As she knows, any older person, regardless of whether they live at home, live in a community care home or live in a nursing home, if they have a medical card, is entitled to the same rights. Whatever the medical card entitles them to, for example, incontinence supports or physiotherapy, they are entitled to that regardless of where they are living, so that should not change.

In some instances, it is not happening. I spoke to the Deputy in the corridor about it and she said she would send me on some information. If she would-----

The Deputy spoke to me and I am the Minister of State with responsibility for older people, so if she wants, she can copy me into that and we will certainly look at it. The Department is currently looking at the situation.

I thank the Deputy for his continued interest in this. As he knows, home care is so important to the 56,000 people across the length and breadth of the country who receive home care to support them to age well at home. I hope to have this legislation before the House around June. We have done substantial work on it. It is a complicated issue and it is important we legislate and put home care providers on a statutory footing, be they public, private or voluntary.

I thank Deputy Donnelly for raising this issue and apologise for being a couple of seconds late. I was watching the screen, waiting for the round-up and the next minute, I had to dart across. I am taking this on behalf of the Minister for Health, Deputy Donnelly. CHI at Connolly, which opened in July 2019, is a children's outpatient and urgent care centre staffed by specialist paediatric teams, including nurses, doctors, health and social care professionals and support staff. Urgent care is for the diagnosis and tr…

I thank the Deputy for his contribution and the sentiments he expressed. In 2022, nearly 24,000 children presented at the urgent care centre, 91% of whom were discharged after their visit. As the Deputy knows, the urgent care centre at Connolly Hospital has a significant number of short-stay observation beds, in addition to the contemporary use of ICT to support ambulatory and urgent care and avoid unnecessary admissions. Since March 2022, the demand for the urgent care centre at Connolly has grown beyond the plann…

There were many questions there. The HSE, the Government and I are fully committed to ensuring the most appropriate supports are there for young people. I might put a little context on this, which does not always happen across the floor of the Dáil. A total of 21,000 children are currently receiving the supports of CAMHS. There were 225,000 appointments last year among 73 CAMHS teams working the length and the breadth of the country, but what was excluded from the report was the fact that the number of referrals to…