As an aside, will the Taoiseach ask the Minister for Health or somebody, perhaps through NPHET, to sort out the issue arising over masks and visors? The misuse of visors across the country and, dare I say, in this House is wrong. It is not helping in our collective fight against Covid.

The issue I want to ask the Taoiseach about concerns our use of private hospitals. I have referred to this before. I have been banging on about it for a long time. Without a shadow of a doubt, part of the reason NPHET made its recommendation in recent days was concern over ICU beds. I realise the Taoiseach has answered the questions and I respect what the chief executive of the HSE, Mr. Paul Reid, is saying in this regard but surely it would be cost effective and the right thing for the State to purchase now at least one, if not two, private hospitals.

We are meant to be building two elective hospitals in this country anyway. We need capacity. We need ICU capacity, but we also need elective capacity.

Thank you, Deputy. Time is up.

Will the Taoiseach consider the purchase of such hospitals in the coming budget for the coming year? We need them?

I will make three points. First, there needs to be a sale to enable a purchase. That is a procurement issue and there is a negotiation issue if such a situation were to materialise. Second, there is a €25 million bridging agreement already in place between the HSE and private hospitals which allows for diagnostics and general services to be provided. This will move into a more comprehensive procurement agreement, which has been completed between the HSE and the private hospital sector and will be up and running in the next couple of weeks, again dealing with diagnostics and general services. Third, the HSE is currently engaged in discussions around having provision similar to what was available in the pandemic in the event of a major surge occurring. The HSE is confident it will achieve agreement on all fronts.