I will honour that offer.

I will refresh the Minister's memory and that of the House as to what these commitments are. There is a commitment to hire 8,500 staff by the end of next month, 12,500 by the end of April, and 16,000 by December of next year. Again, that is 8,500 by the end of December. I am really looking forward to getting that document on 15 November because massive progress must obviously have been made over recent months. We know there are issues in respect of recruitment. We have seen this in the area of contact tracing. What…

It was an increase of 1,800.

The Minister is going over old ground. We have been over the issue of whole-time equivalents before. I actually gave him the figures the last time as well. It is perplexing and wrong that these are not full-time positions. It would be helpful if the Minister could listen to me. It is perplexing and wrong. Will the Minister please explain to the House why these 1,800 people are not on full-time contracts? Will he please explain how that is not a systems failure? In the limited time we have, will he also please updat…

I would like to share time with Deputy Brendan Howlin. Over the past seven months, the Government and State have made some big asks of the Irish people and here we are again. Businesses have closed, hundreds of thousands of people have lost their jobs, especially in the past week, lives have been completely disrupted and turned upside down, and society in many ways has ground to a halt, all in the name of defeating this deadly virus that has taken so many lives and remains such a threat. We are making all these sac…

The Health (Preservation and Protection and other Emergency Measures in the Public Interest) Act 2020 is a vital part of the national effort to challenge and overcome coronavirus. The Labour Party supported the Act originally because it supports the objectives the Act is trying to achieve. In March, we tabled amendments to ensure that the House would be able to review sunset clauses, as is being done today. We need another date to be set to ensure that any concerns will be addressed. In fairness, I think the Minist…

I agree with the comments of the previous speaker. We need an access point. There are many queries. I cannot answer some of them, because I do not know. I think we are all in that situation. There is confusion and so many provisos. It would be good, therefore, to have an access point or a telephone line through which we could get clarity. The Minister must also ensure the regulations are brought in fairly. I refer to large multiple stores being open and taking food out of the mouths of small shop operators who must…

I do not think the Minister for Health has a clue what I was just saying.

By God, the Minister needs to listen. It is ridiculous. As I was saying, the rules in question were never put into regulations, and that was not because the Government does not have the power to do so. The Oireachtas gave that power to the Government in March. For some reason, however, that has not been spelled out, the Government has preferred a confusing approach whereby some public health rules have no legal status, while others are put into regulations but made non-penal. That means there is no power to enforce…

The issue is that the Morrissey judgment has changed all that. It has changed a great deal of this and much of the thinking on it. I raised this yesterday and I respectfully ask the Minister to meet the 221+ group - the Taoiseach has already committed to meeting me - and push back the date until that is done. On a more positive note, in fairness, the Government has listened on a number of issues in respect of where we are going with Covid-19. As regards the situation with loneliness and isolation, the creation of b…

I appreciate that. The statistics show that no pregnant woman has been infected, which is an amazing statistic. We want to keep it that way. However, there are certain circumstances, particularly when bad news has been delivered, where we will have to change the protocols. It is too devastating. I also believe we must examine the protocols in general. I have an issue with regard to somebody who does not have enough income or who is not going through the private system - some of us have a sufficient income but still…

I might broaden it out because, obviously, we are aware of the same issue. There seems to be an issue as regards recruitment. I pointed out last week that there are 200 fewer permanent nurses in the system than before Covid and there are 1,800 more temporary or contract nurses. We also have issues with contact tracing and with nurses in the community, as pointed out by two previous speakers. There is a commitment, however, to 8,500 new healthcare professionals to be recruited by the end of this year, 12,500 by the …

This is about tracing and not about testing. I always have a degree of sympathy and sorrow for the Taoiseach and particularly for the Minister, Deputy Donnelly, because it is obvious that they were not aware of this until very recently. They have been out in the public and they have been talking in here expressing confidence in testing and tracing. On a point of order, I ask the Ceann Comhairle to tell the Deputy at the back to get off the phone. It happens in here almost every day. It is ridiculous at this stage. …

I would say you have a fair idea now.

At what time yesterday, or whenever, was the Taoiseach made aware of the issue? When was the Minister made aware of it? I compliment The Irish Times because I do not think we would have known about this if it were not for the work of Simon Carswell, Jack Horgan Jones and their colleagues. The Taoiseach mentioned that it is taking 2.2 days from end to end. The real figure we need to know is how long it is taking in the community. It took considerable journalistic action to find out it is actually 4.1. Every day and …

Yes.

I am not into quangos. It is just a situation where the whole thing is being inspected, run and-----

I asked a few questions that the Taoiseach did not answer. I respect his point that he got this information by text, which is extraordinary. I do not believe the public would know about this were it not for The Irish Times . Were it not for Simon Carswell and Jack Horgan-Jones, we would not be talking about this issue this morning. That needs to be looked into. Will the Taoiseach inform the House when the Minister found out about this? The running of the test and trace system needs to be in some way separated from …

For the public, it is not conceivable or understandable that contact tracing was not resourced until now. We need bandwidth and elasticity to ensure the public is protected. That did not happen and it is bloody well not acceptable.

It is failing.