I propose to take Questions Nos. 5 to 8, inclusive, together. On 28 October, I met with leaders of the Catholic Church, namely, Archbishop Eamon Martin, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, Archbishop Michael Neary, Archbishop Kieran O'Reilly and Bishop Dermot Farrell.  Discussion focused mainly on the effect the current Covid-19 restrictions are having on the health and well-being of the faith community and the great desire to return to worship as soon as possible.  The archbishops emphasised that they are fully supportive…

I pay tribute to Deputy Alan Kelly's daughter. That is the kind of intergenerational solidarity that enables us, as communities-----

I have an Aoibhe myself. It is the kind of intergenerational solidarity that will get us through the pandemic. What comes across is the importance of faith to many in our community, which Deputy Tóibín also mentioned. It is good for people's mental health to get out and about and to get to church. The support that is there is important. The meeting really focused on level 3 restrictions because the archbishops accepted that level 5 involved severe restrictions but what was a surprise to them was that in the origina…

I will.

I propose to take Questions Nos. 9 to 11, inclusive, together. The Cabinet committee on health was established by Government decision on 6 July and it last met on 12 November. The committee is due to meet again next month. The Cabinet committee oversees implementation of programme for Government commitments in relation to health, receives detailed reports on identified policy areas and considers the implementation of health reforms, including Sláintecare. In addition to the meetings of the full Cabinet and of Cabin…

Regarding the questions from Deputy McDonald, I too commend the HSE on its analysis and study of a very worrying and deeply troubling female suicide cluster in Ballyfermot and in other areas the Deputy identified, and the multiple factors that gave rise to the issues there. I will engage with the chief executive and board of the HSE to ensure that this issue gets priority attention. The lessons from this will inform wider application of policy and engagement and intervention, because that is a significant cluster i…

I am sorry. We will come back to this issue again next week. There was also Deputy Boyd Barrett's question.

Yes. Again, the HSE was under a lot of pressure in this House concerning the need to recruit contact tracing staff and have a separate workforce as quickly as possible. The agency is being called on from all fronts in the House to do this, that and the other. I presume that is why it did what it did in respect of how it procured the services of CPL. I can get that checked, but I presume that is the rationale, because there was pressure on from all fronts to ensure we recruit and get a separate workforce in place to…

Leinster House is world-class too.

The language used by the Deputy is quite propagandistic. To describe a €3.3 billion budget allocation as "massively disappointing" is extraordinary by any yardstick. Fianna Fáil has not been in power for ten years. That is just the reality and the facts, but Sinn Féin never allows facts get in the way of anything. The bottom line is that we want to build social housing and we want to build it at scale. That is what this budget allocation does. We also want to build affordable houses. Supply is the key to the housin…

It would be useful if people compared and contrasted the Sinn Féin performance in government on housing to that of the current Government here in terms of protecting tenants. Under a Sinn Féin Minister with responsibility for housing, for example, the recent private tenancies legislation in the North simply extended the termination period to 12 weeks, with the courts starting to hear eviction proceedings from 31 August. The protections Sinn Féin brought in where it is in government are far less than what we have be…

The Deputy raised a number of issues. Beginning with the Covid-19 situation, the bottom line is that we are part of a pre-purchase agreement with the European Commission. The latter has advance purchase agreements so far, and prior to this week, with Oxford and AstraZeneca; with Janssen, which is owned by Johnson & Johnson; and with Sanofi Pasteur. Those agreements will be formalised following completion of clinical trials and the Janssen vaccine is expected in late December. The emerging news is that the Commissio…

I accept the latter point the Deputy made. Whether or not it is a weekly update, I would like the task force to get down to work on this. That is why we have established the task force and I am very determined to move ahead, notwithstanding the work that has already been under way, to be fair, within the normal channels around immunisation. That includes the work of the National Immunisation Advisory Committee and the work done by the Department of Health and the HSE. Given the precise issues in terms of some of th…

I agree that it should be done electronically.

I thank the Deputy for raising these very serious issues. Without doubt, Covid-19 has had a significant impact on a range of services and activities and it has created much hardship and difficulties for many people. The Deputy mentioned initially the screening programmes. In the first phase of Covid-19 and the first lockdown, screening programmes were not just scaled down but closed down. The emphasis of the winter initiative, but also the increased funding for health in 2021, is designed to resume a broad range of…

I ask the Deputy to send me the details of the cases that he has come across. There is a number of key points here. For example, if someone is leaving prison, there should be a proper plan for that person before he or she leaves prison in terms of rehabilitation or work, and in terms of placement, and each case is different. Much work goes on within prisons to facilitate safe release that can lead to a sustainable life, free from addiction and with supports and wraparound services. That is very important. Likewise,…

We all need to be careful with language and how we describe things. People are not scared to attend screening services. People are not scared to go to hospital and many are going. As we moved into level 5, one of the key objectives was to keep normal health services open. That has been one of the clear differences between this level 5 lockdown, if we call it that, and the first lockdown. That is understandable too because for a lot of people, the whole experience of this virus was that it was new, unprecedented and…

As I said to the Deputy, Covid has had an impact. It has resulted in delays. The first lockdown resulted in very significant delays. I do not know what the Deputy's alternative is in terms of what happened in the last number of months. If we take diabetic retinal screening as an example, it resumed on 1 July. Some 20,000 people had been screened by the end of October, so people did come through and it is important to say that. People are turning up for screenings. People are turning up in our hospitals for elective…

The only issue is to start now affirming those working on the front line because Covid-19 is a once in a 100 years event. It is impacting all strands and strata of society. It is extremely important we affirm people who work on the front line as well. Restrictions have to be in place. Deputy Mattie McGrath attacks social distancing but it must happen. Have we any chance of reducing Covid-19 if people say we do not have to socially distance?

The Deputy said social distancing is reducing the number of operations.