The Health Minister will endure a grilling on the response to the Covid-19 pandemic before the Oireachtas Health Committee later today.
Stephen Donnelly will provide an update on HSE recruitment, the winter response to the virus and mental health.
A member of the committee is concerned about ICU capacity, with 43 people in critical care with the disease last night.
Deputy Gino Kenny says the Government must make sure there's room for patients who need critical care.
"Over the last number of decades hospital beds and ICU beds have actually declined, rather than gone up.
"It's really important that particularly around Covid-19 that ICU bed capacity increases, rather than decreases, capacity issues around beds is the imperative."
