He just gives it, but he is not able to take it. He is not able to listen to any criticism.

He does not support the measures and he has voted and advocated consistently in a way that would put peoples lives and those of our nurses and doctors at risk. His record on this issue on opposing all of the measures required to keep people safe in this country speaks for itself. What does he do? He accuses people of being Nazis and says they should be tried for war crimes.

The Deputy is a disgrace-----

-----and he continues to be such.

He is not able to take the criticism.

He is able to lash it out. He says horrible things.

He says horrible things to people in this House all the time, to people elected to represent the people, but he is not able to take it.

I acknowledge the point made by Deputies Duncan Smith and Naughten. We need a medium- to long-term approach. It does not work for anybody to keep going through cycle after cycle and I am open to meeting with Deputies to discuss it. We are thinking through more medium-term responses, operationally, but I would be open to any ideas from the Oireachtas. Obviously, the reason we are in here again and again is we have put in the sunset clauses. It is one of the important safeguards. We are here going through the full le…

It is over the year and a half since July last year. Making the modest assumptions that each of these regulations has to be voted on, which is what the amendments say, and would involve three and a half hours of debate - this does not include the Seanad - it would essentially take up all the capacity the Dáil has to legislate. After Oral Questions, the Order of Business, Leaders' Questions and all of that, let us assume there are about six hours left in any given sitting day. Overnight, these regulations would more…

I thank Deputies for all of the contributions. I will try to move through them as quickly as I can. I will start with the substance of the amendments. I believe we are all agreed that there needs to be as much engagement as possible in the Oireachtas. I have, in good faith, already commenced a process to increase that. I made a point earlier, before Deputy Boyd Barrett was present, when I went through all of the Dáil engagement there has been just this week and last week. While I enjoy the Deputy’s company, I have …

As this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the deputy directly, as soon as possible.

I thank the Deputy for the question. It is such a critical issue and it has to be solved permanently. We are all very aware that waiting times for hospital procedures and appointments are unacceptably long. This applies to paediatric orthopaedics, as he rightly said. It is of particular concern to me when it comes to procedures that are time-sensitive, such as scoliosis and others mentioned by the Deputy. I remain acutely aware of the impact that delays are having on children and their families. We remain committed…

To be clear, it is not either-or. It is not revenue funding or the access to care fund. They are for different purposes. The revenue funding is to build up the permanent capacity in the system so we never see waiting lists like this again. While we are doing that, the access to care fund is used to ensure that the people who are currently waiting are seen. Cappagh Kids and the National Orthopaedic Hospital at Cappagh have submitted several applications under the access to care fund. They are using it. They received…

There is no lack of funding available under the access to care fund. If Eilísh Hardiman and the team are looking for money for short periods, which is what the access to care funding provides, there will be money left at the end of December. The HSE has not been able to spend all the money. That is not from want of desire to do so. Given all of the various issues that the HSE has been dealing with this year, it has made incredible progress. There is funding there. In Temple Street, for example, part of the permanen…

I share Deputy Tóibín's concern, as do the team running the national cancer control programme, NCCP, the Department and the HSE. The Department and the national cancer control programme are systematically studying the impact of Covid-19 on cancer services through data monitoring and monthly review meetings. I am sure I would be able to get the Deputy a detailed note on that if he wishes. During the first wave, from March to May 2020, in line with international experience and as the Deputy has quite rightly pointed …

I agree with all of that. In terms of treatment, the numbers are as follows. The number of patients receiving chemotherapy this year is 95% of the number for 2019. The number of patients receiving radiation oncology in the period from January to August is 85% of the equivalent number for 2019. The equivalent figure for surgical oncology for January to August is 80% of the 2019 figure. Critically, these figures do not include the private hospital activity being used by the public system, so the overall figures are h…

I am very happy to give that commitment. That step change is already under way. In the last year, there was a record increase in the number of hospital beds. Very shortly, we will have added approximately 1,000 hospital beds. To the Deputy's point, there are more than 500 Covid patients in hospital at the moment. We have added twice that number of beds in the last year. We are in the middle of the biggest increase in critical care capacity on record. This year and last year were the top two years with regard to inc…

They are all over the country. We can get the Deputy a breakdown of where they are.

I thank the Deputy. I looked into this and was advised that the HSE does not collect that specific information centrally. When I was preparing for this session, I noted that the Deputy's direct question had not been answered so I asked the Department to see if that information could be collected. The HSE collects data on cancellations locally but not centrally. Arguably, that is something that should be done. Capacity is obviously one of the big issues. There is an acknowledged deficit in critical care capacity in …

Yes, I agree with the analysis by the Deputy. It is not about simply providing more home care, outpatients, operating theatres or diagnostics. We have got to look at the entire patient pathway. Can they get to the GP quick enough? Can the GP refer to a consultant or, better still, is there an intermediary, like an advance nurse practitioner scheme that we have seen treat and discharge between 70% and 80% of patients who, in many cases, would have had to wait to see a consultant? Do the consultants have the outpatie…