Living with Covid-19 Restrictions: Statements Seanad Éireann — 2020-11-10 ============================================================ Emer Currie (FG), Nominated by the Taoiseach I welcome the Minister of State. I wish to speak about nursing homes, particularly those that were directly affected by Covid-19 during the first wave. Normally, the director of nursing in a home can do an assessment test for viral infections and does not have to go through a GP. However, that is not the case when it comes to Covid-19. I might ring my GP and get a test very quickly but nursing homes have to wait until a GP visits. They do not necessarily come every day. I ask the Minister of State if that process can be changed so that directors of nursing, who have years of experience under their belt, can decide if someone needs a test and can act immediately. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2020-11-10/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:48:45+00:00 Sitting date: 2020-11-10