I apologise to Deputy Carey.

I apologise to the Deputy. He might bear with me. There are not as many people turning up on a Friday.

I thank the Deputy very much for his question. It is an essential one on an essential piece of infrastructure for Cork and indeed the entire region. The provision of additional elective care delivery capability in Cork, Galway and Dublin is, as the Deputy will be aware, stated Government policy. The purpose of elective care centres is to initially provide high volume, low- to medium-complexity procedures and a range of related diagnostic services as well. There will also be outpatient facilities. The range of speci…

It is recognised that the current elective care capacities do not meet current demand and there will be even greater demand for elective care services in the future. Incremental refinements to the current public hospital network will not, I think we can all agree, be sufficient to meet this demand by themselves. The electives proposal has guided the work of the elective hospitals oversight group, under the governance of the HSE and the Department of Health. The development of three elective care centres will requir…

I assure the Deputy that no one is proposing anything that would be described as a part-time hospital. He might elaborate on what he means so I can address concerns, if he has them, but I assure him that there is-----

I assure the Deputy that no one is proposing a part-time hospital. To answer his exact question on when we will be able to announce where the hospital will be built, with details on its configuration, the number of operating theatres, the number of patients we hope to see, the timelines and so forth, I would like nothing more than to come to the Chamber and, indeed, meet representatives from the region, to give that information. However, following the national children's hospital situation, a review of large capita…

I wholeheartedly agree with Deputy Cullinane. There needs to be engagement with the health committee and elected representatives from the regions. To answer his question, these will be regional elective hospitals that will not just serve Cork city, County Cork or Galway city. They will be incredibly useful. I suggest to both Deputies that elected representatives from the regions and members of the health committee consider arranging a trip to one of these hospitals, which I would be very happy to facilitate. We hav…

I will caveat my response. I do not think anybody expected to get to Question No. 117, so the note I have does not include everything I would like. I will therefore go from memory, so if some of these figures are off, I apologise ahead of time. Between boosters and third doses for the immunocompromised, approximately 900,000 vaccines have been administered at this stage. The highest priority groups were nursing homes and other long-term residential care residents, those over the age of 80 years and those who are im…

I will respond first to the Deputy's second point, which was what the level of demand is like. As the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, was just saying to me, the demand in the nursing homes has been huge. There has been no drop-off. We saw over the weekend very long queues. Obviously, we do not want anyone waiting many hours for a booster, particularly in the winter, but it is at least indicative that there is a very high demand, and we have seen it grow. In fact, we have seen another big wave of interest since we…

I might come back on the supplementary-----

Perhaps I will just finish up on this, Acting Chairman.

Many staff were redeployed into primary and acute care. Some went back into retirement. An amazing number of people had come out of retirement. Students went back to college. In recent weeks, the HSE has been successfully asking people to come back and has been deploying, where possible, from acute settings. However, the acute settings are under severe pressure and one of the areas we were able to bring staff from last time was PCR testing. We now have capacity of approximately 225,000 PCR tests per week. The stude…

I move: "That the Bill be now read a second time". I welcome the opportunity to present the Health and Criminal Justice (Covid-19) (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2021 to the House. The purpose of this Bill is to extend the period of application of certain emergency provisions that have been key to the Government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic. The emergency provisions that are to be extended include Part 3 of the Health (Preservation and Protection and other Emergency Measures in the Public Interest) Act 2020; the C…

Hear, hear.

I thank the Deputies for their contributions this evening. I acknowledge the broad support for an approach in Ireland which is led by public health and by evidence. I acknowledge the broad support for vaccines, the broad support in the House for boosters, the broad support in the House for testing, both for PCR testing and for antigen testing, and the broad support for an approach to Covid-19 where the benefits of us all following the public health advice are so important. It is supported by not all but most Member…

Two thirds of Covid patients are under 45 years.

That is an important message. There is genuine concern in Ireland right now. We are all aware of it. We are all talking to our constituents, families and friends and there is real concern. New measures have just been announced by an Taoiseach for the coming weeks. People are hearing about initial reports and are listening to initial reports and views on the Omicron variant, and they are, quite naturally, concerned. All of us have a role to play at the moment, at what is a very difficult time for people all over Ire…

If we support the public health advice, let us do that. There are some false claims being put around this evening, like the claim that the rise in transmission in young children is because of a lack of contact tracing in schools. That simply is not the case. The rise in cases in children has followed the rise in cases in the population.

Deputy Ward seemed to be deeply critical of everything the Government is doing on Covid but then he shared with the House that he is doubly vaccinated and got his booster last week. Clearly, we are not doing everything wrong.

I have heard Deputies and I am going to try to step up the engagement. I ask my colleagues in opposition, if they are willing - I know some will not be - to try to go with us on this right now-----