I am more than happy to respond in writing.

I very much welcome the opportunity to once again update Dáil Éireann on the Covid-19 pandemic and our national response to it. First and foremost, I wish to express my sympathy to the families and friends of those who have been lost to this disease since I was last in the House. My thoughts are with all of those who have been bereaved. We are in the third week of phase 1 of our Roadmap for Reopening Society and Business and tomorrow we will decide whether it is safe to proceed to phase 2. I have now received the a…

Let me be clear that I, the Department, the HSE and the Oireachtas wish to be in a position to recommence our population screening programmes as soon as possible. It is a collective priority for us all. I am glad to inform the Deputy that the four programmes - obviously, there are four parts to our screening service - will report on their final plans for restarting in the coming days. Yesterday, I had a very good meeting with the CEO of the HSE, Mr. Paul Reid, and its chief clinical officer, Dr. Colm Henry, and I h…

I might write to Deputy Butler with more detail on screening so as not to use up her colleagues' time. I know how important this issue is and how many times she has raised it. The national screening service is holding daily meetings on this. I am very satisfied with the work being done by Dr. Caroline Mason Mohan, who is the interim director of CervicalCheck and a public health doctor as well. She is leading the working group and I think it is appropriate that this is led by clinicians. I believe, however, that the…

I will do that. I agree with the Deputy in regard to the importance of cross-Border measures and I can send details on what we are doing. I will also write to the Deputy in regard to the statistics on Cavan and Monaghan.

I will answer as many of the Deputies' questions as I can in the time available and I will write to the Deputies on the other two queries. On Deputy James Browne's question on A Vision for Change, I have heard very clearly the calls on a cross-party basis in this House for the publication of the refreshed A Vision for Change. It is my intention to bring it to the Cabinet this week, I hope this evening, with a view to my colleague Minister of State, Jim Daly, briefing the advocacy groups early next week and publishi…

I do not think we ever did that in Greystones at any stage. We will have to ask Deputy Donnelly as he is at little bit older than me. I thank Deputy O'Reilly for the questions. I had a really good meeting with the INMO and SIPTU health on Monday and I am due to meet both again next week. We have started to discuss with them the issues raised by the Deputy on how we prepare to provide non-Covid care and for winter in the knowledge that the virus will be with us. Many of the issues the Deputy has raised are issues th…

I thank the Deputy. I am not sure that she wants an independent investigation because she seems to have already delivered the verdict, which is rather disappointing. To endeavour to say that there was no proper plan and that nobody did anything-----

-----does not reflect the reality of what I have seen as Minister. I have seen the most incredibly dedicated people in the HSE, at local level, and in the Department of Health working 24-7 against a global pandemic. As I stated last week, the villain here is not someone working in the HSE or even some bureaucrat, or even a Minister; the villain is a virus - the worst we have seen in a century - that has taken the lives of so many people, particularly older individuals. I think 90% of people in this country who have…

I will revert to the Deputy in writing on the last few points.

I thank the Deputy for raising the very important issue of mental health, particularly youth mental health. This week, the Government will consider the new A Vision for Change document that the Deputy referred to. A lot of work has been put in by a lot of expert people on this and I hope, subject to Government approval, to be in a position to publish that next week. I know that is something the Deputy and her colleagues have been looking for as well and they have written to me in that regard. I want the Deputy to k…

I remember visiting Mindspace in Mayo with Deputy Dillon. It has written to me a few times and kept in touch with me, and I am very taken by the work it does. The Deputy is right to highlight the issue of mental health as one of the next huge challenges coming down the track. The Ceann Comhairle and I have been in correspondence in this regard. I think there will be a big body of work that this House, collectively, whoever is in government and whoever is in opposition - all of us - will be duty-bound to do in how w…

I will respect your view on that absolutely, a Cheann Comhairle. I wish to join Deputy Feighan in thanking our front-line staff in the health service, as we do, rightly, every week. I have had really good engagement with the unions representing several of those workers this week. I also intend to meet the general practitioner representative body, the Irish Medical Organisation, next week. We need to continue to keep the spirit of partnership going. Deputy Feighan is absolutely right to thank the gardaí. As the Mini…

I thank Deputy Noonan for his questions. I echo his comments on the protest. There is an onus. It is easy to criticise a protest when one does not agree with its cause or the reason behind it, but it is more difficult to do so when one does support the cause. That does not mean we can be silent on it, though. What happened to George Floyd disgusts and repulses everyone in this country and probably all sane-thinking people across the world. At the same time, we must be conscious of the fact that any gathering, no ma…

I thank the Deputy for his concern.

I am in the full of my health.

The first point I would make, which the HSE would make if its representatives were here, is that the HSE is not waiting for a point in time to resume non-Covid care. I know that Deputy Kelly knows this too and is aware of it from hospitals in his constituency. The number of vacant hospital beds has significantly decreased, despite the fact that the number of patients with Covid-19 in our hospitals has also, thankfully, decreased.

Without getting into the discussion about trolleys, the fact that we are seeing more people attending accident and emergency departments and GP surgeries and occupying more hospital beds this week compared with last week - fewer of them have Covid-19 - is a sign that the health service is getting busier and is trying to get back to as much business as usual in a very different way. The Deputy made the point to me in this House and to the Taoiseach that the non-Covid care plan had to belong to the HSE, not NPHET. I …

I am certainly not aware of any joint order. Obviously, the HSE would be fully informed and I fully endorse the position of the HSE in respect of this matter. There is no joint order between the Republic of Ireland Government and the Government of Northern Ireland. There has been excellent co-operation between myself and my counterpart, the Northern Ireland health Minister, Mr. Robin Swann, who is a very decent and hardworking person. Along with the two chief medical officers, we have had excellent engagement in wh…

On the private hospitals issue, it was a political decision. It was a decision taken by the Government of Ireland on a memorandum brought to Government by me. There is no passing the buck. It was a decision taken by the Government, which decision many in this House advocated from a variety of political spectrums should have been made. It is not for me to speak for the HSE but it wants to know that there is additional capacity available should it be required. I have made clear that any new agreement would have to in…