First, I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. I accept that many families and many people with special needs and disabilities have had an extremely stressful and tough time during this pandemic with the withdrawal of services and the curtailment of services because specific Covid-19 health requirements have made the circumstances and conditions very stressful. I acknowledge that it is on top of additional stress that was there already. Throughout my political life I have worked hard on the disability issue, in …

I am determined to do what is required to provide for disability services for all ages. There are very substantial challenges. The new Government has been in office for three months. When I was a Minister in previous Governments, I made it my business to go above and beyond and to do something specific and extra for disability services, particularly in the areas of education and health. I am determined that the Government will respond in a comprehensive way to the needs of the disability sector. In addition to that…

No, I am not.

Let there be no doubt that Covid-19 had a significant impact on non-Covid illness and disease. In my view, it resulted in delayed diagnoses across cancer and coronary care and in other areas. That happened because at the time of the lockdown many elective procedures and diagnostics were cancelled and significant backlogs built up. I accept and agree with the Deputy that some people are now manifesting later stage conditions as a result, it seems to me, of delayed diagnosis. Some people have told me they did not wis…

We will get the figures, but it will take a reasonable period of time to so do. No one is denying the reality of the impact of Covid on non-Covid care. That is why the winter initiative and what we are trying to do right now aim to manage Covid and resume services, including screening services. As the Deputy is aware, three of the four screening services have resumed screening using a phased approach. It is projected that BreastCheck will resume screening this month. That is on the screening side. There is a fair d…

People would not go into hospital because there was a fear of so doing at the time. People were genuinely afraid of the virus. What we wish to do now is to procure private hospitals for elective procedures, diagnostics and general services. I take the Deputy's point. Whatever happens now in terms of the pandemic, part of the challenge is to maintain these services.

There is a plan. The winter initiative is the plan to increase capacity in general hospital beds and to increase ICU capacity but primarily it is more preventative to prevent people going into hospital in the first place. We then have the community diagnostic hubs and stronger primary care resources, all of which are provided for in the winter initiative. In addition, there are 4.7 million extra home care packages and hours, all of which are designed to try to keep capacity in our hospitals to allow for elective pr…

I am sorry, the virus is not an exact science.

It has not been since the beginning. The point I would make is that the winter initiative is a large and significant initiative and we have to get that delivered and implemented in terms of acute capacity and additional private bed capacity. I agree with the Deputy that the precise procurement and approach to that is an issue. I refer to intermediate care beds, additional access to diagnostics for GPs, community healthcare networks, community specialist teams for older people, and chronic diseases.

One of the big problems for the hospitals, as the Deputy and I know, has been that too many people who are finished their acute phase of hospital treatment have had to stay in hospital for far too long, with backlogs the whole way down the line. I will ask the agency to give the Deputy any information he requires in terms of specifics around particular diseases and conditions.

I received the Deputy's letter on 5 October, which I thought was a constructive letter, and I noted the points she made in it, particularly in terms of having a multidisciplinary approach to the pandemic, her sense that we cannot just respond to every upsurge with a severe lockdown, that other aspects had to be taken on board and the need to achieve maximum buy-in. There is a strategy. The Government produced a plan, and it was debated in the House, to live with Covid and try to manage, contain and suppress Covid-1…

I am trying to organise a meeting with the party leaders. It looks like it might be Monday at this stage and I will work with leaders in that regard. It is to have a fuller briefing in respect of all aspects of it. On the travel issue, we are now working on and looking at the European framework that has been published-----

-----and we are engaging with the European authorities. The health authorities have been consistently negative about checks and testing at airports. The public health authorities have a different view-----

-----to what the lay view might be in respect of that. I just had to put that on the record. We are dealing with that.

The public health authorities have been very reluctant to embrace antigen testing or rapid testing. They have had a view, and the engagement is continuing, that testing at airports would not be the wisest use of resources in terms of isolating and contact tracing. They have fears about it and believe it could lead to multiple false trails involving huge numbers.

I am just explaining it to the Deputy. I am just sharing with her concerns that-----

-----public health officials have in regard to this. We have got to deal with it. The Minister for Health asked HIQA to assess the new testing technologies from a technological perspective. That assessment has been completed and it will be presented to him shortly. Obviously, the Minister for Transport is examining this. There has been a series of multidepartmental meetings on the question of what additional measures we will require if we opt into the European framework. The oversight committee, chaired by the Secr…

It is not, actually.

Regarding the central point on travel, the Deputy can be briefed by public health officials. They have had concerns consistently about alternatives to the PCR testing regime.

There will be no resources spared in the public health response. The Minister for Health has already announced a doubling of public health doctors. I spoke with the Chief Medical Officer this morning on this issue, among others. Again, we are in agreement that anything we can do to fast-track the recruitment and appointment of other staff will happen. As the Deputy knows, with regard to the testing regime, the first 500 community swabbers are through the interview process and are going into compliance checking. The…