There were 669 people on hospital trolleys yesterday, 28 of whom were children. This is the highest ever level of hospital overcrowding for the month of October. Some 15 hospitals across the State did not have a single bed available. My colleague, Deputy Cullinane, has information showing that the average wait in an emergency department this year is nearly 13 hours. It is nearly 15 hours for those aged over 75. As the Taoiseach will know, the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, INMO, has repeatedly warned of a catastrophic winter for our hospitals, so this crisis was entirely foreseeable. The big question is, where is the plan and the action needed from the Minister for Health? Where is the plan for emergency departments he promised last April? Where is the multi-annual plan for tackling hospital waiting lists the Minister promised more than 18 months ago? Why are these plans lying on the Minister's desk while our people are lying on trolleys?

There is nothing lying on the Minister's desk. There has been a very substantial increase in core funding for the health service. The Minister has published an initiative to deal with this winter. There are concerns about a combination of a flu outbreak and a return of the Covid virus, which could cause very significant difficulties with regard to admissions to hospital. That is why there has been a stronger focus on primary care and community care. The enhanced community care programme is a very significant development and initiative, which will prevent people from having to go into the hospitals in the first instance. Key to this is patient flow, that is, keeping patients moving efficiently through hospitals and making sure there are facilities for discharge to the optimal location for them to recover when they have finished the acute phase of their treatment.