In the programme for Government, it is stated that one of the main priorities will be health. Since the start of the pandemic, the Government has rightly dramatically increased the budget for health spending. I have supported this approach. I worry, however, that we are not getting a better long-term return on the increased spending. One of the main reasons we shut down society and the economy was to suppress Covid because we did not want our ICU departments overrun. I fully accepted and supported this approach. Can the Taoiseach confirm how many additional ICU beds are available in the health system as a result of the additional spending on health? I would appreciate a simple comparison of the number of ICU beds available at the start of the pandemic, those promised in the programme for Government and those available now.

I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. There has been a substantial increase in funding to health, particularly the winter initiative last year. There was a total of over €4 billion, the largest ever budget. It has yielded results, including 5 million home care packages over the winter period into this year. That has facilitated a greater flow. We have higher levels of activity in the hospitals than we had pre-pandemic in 2019. That is good news and means people are coming to our hospitals. We want to protect that. A concern in respect of the Delta variant is that it does not have an impact on what is essential in the restoration of normal, non-Covid health services. In the presentation to us last week, the HSE was strong on that.

There has been an increase in ICU beds. I will get the Deputy the exact numbers. There have also been increases in acute beds, as well as improvements in diagnostics, the transformation of the relationship between HSE and primary care and in community-based care.