I will be brief. I am not going to stand in this House and have any slur made against my name.

I abide, as I expect all of us to do in our workplace, by the public health advice that is given. The public health advice given to the Business Committee, and commissioned, I believe, by the Oireachtas, pertains to how we do our business in a safe manner. Should that public health advice change or should the Oireachtas adopt a different position----

I am more than happy to be here. I am abiding by the public health advice and I suggest Deputy Carthy do the same.

By the way, I am here and Deputy Carthy can ask me any questions he wishes.

I welcome this opportunity to be in this House again regarding Covid-19 and our national response to it. I am sure Deputy Carthy would like to stay and ask me some questions on the topic, although he is leaving the Chamber now. First and most important, I wish to express my sympathy to the family and friends of those that have been lost to this disease since I was last in this House. I think of them today and every day, and I know all of us in this House, across parties and groupings, do. On Monday, we initiated ph…

I thank Deputy Browne for raising these matters. It is timely because, yesterday, I spent much of the day meeting, at the request of Deputy Shortall, the Disability Action Coalition, Disability Federation of Ireland and the National Federation of Voluntary Service Providers, which work with and represent people with intellectual disabilities and their service providers. They have done an incredible job in terms of both managing Covid and managing or limiting the spread of infection through their facilities. I had a…

Okay. I will certainly undertake to do that and will revert to the Deputy next week.

The short answer is that, yes, it is something I consider doing as a matter of urgency but there is work under way in respect of it. The Deputy is entirely correct. Our clinical experts believe we are going to need to keep bed occupancy in our public health service at approximately 80% to 85%. That is what it should normally be but we know that this has not been the norm in Ireland. We need to keep it at approximately 80% to 85% as long as we are living alongside Covid. Let us be honest, we would all like to keep i…

I thank Deputy Butler. On the nursing homes, I have informed Nursing Homes Ireland of this expert panel and we will certainly have an opportunity for it to input. There will be many stakeholders from which the expert panel will need to hear. I do not intend to have people from representative bodies on it but it is important that there is a way for those bodies to have an input. When we look at other countries the world over, we put a lot of measures in place in Ireland for nursing homes that other countries did not…

There are quite a few questions from the Deputy, as always, which is good. I might respond in writing to some of them. I have a list of the breakdown for inpatient discharges, day cases, diagnostics and total outpatient figures relating to the private hospitals. If I was to read it out, it would take up all of the time so I will send it to the Deputy. I have an open mind regarding how we proceed with the utilisation of private hospitals beyond the current timeframe of the existing agreement. I recognise, as does th…

I will ask nicely. I am sure the Deputy does so too. I am of the view that it should be on a legal footing. Government is working on that and I hope to have news for Deputy O'Reilly in respect of it shortly. We are also keeping our Northern Ireland colleagues informed of our plans in that regard and we had a quad group meeting recently with the Deputy First Minister, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, the Tánaiste and my counterpart in the North. I will absolutely take away the issue relating to the Trave…

According to my note, it is 300 hours per quarter. The funding is being provided to fund an additional 300 hours for high-risk clients and the quarterly review will ensure that any client who commences a programme of support can have reasonable assurance of its completion. The cashflow supports are also contingent on a continuation between the HSE and Pieta House. I will confirm that in writing to the Deputy but that is my understanding.

I thank the Deputy and note his sincere and strong interest in the issue of mental health. I could outline, although I do not have the time now, what we are doing to beef up the public mental health services but I agree with the Deputy that Pieta House does a really good job. It is very well regarded by people throughout our country, as was seen in recent weeks in terms of how people responded to the fundraising call from Pieta House. My understanding is that the HSE and Pieta House have formally agreed to that add…

I offer my sincere sympathy to the Deputy for the loss his community is feeling because of people losing their lives to suicide. The Deputy is entirely right to put on the record of this House that it is okay not to feel okay and that there are supports available. I direct people to yourmentalhealth.ie for a range of good information and supports. I am in favour of the suggestion of a special sitting of the Dáil on mental health. It is not a matter for me but it is a good idea and it is a matter for the Business Co…

I acknowledge that Deputy O'Dowd has been working on nursing home issues, if I may call them that, since long before I was a Member of this House. He has championed the rights of older people, so I take very seriously what he has to say about the matter. He is right. At the end of this pandemic, or when a new Government is formed, there will be a big job of work for this Oireachtas to do in moving forward with a new model of care for our older people. We have all been saying for years that we want people to be able…

I thank Deputy Smyth for raising this matter. We know that roughly from the middle of March until 12 May the position was that all non-essential health services were effectively paused. Then, on 12 May, the National Public Health Emergency Team said that from a public health point of view the team believed it was appropriate to lift the pause and replace it with a recommendation on appropriate clinical and operational clinical decision-making. Since then, the HSE, led by Mr. Paul Reid, has been working on trying to…

That is a really important question. We have all probably met with Mental Health Reform and other organisations on this. We need a new vision for change, absolutely. My colleague, the Minister of State with responsibility for mental health services, has been working on this and there is now a draft new version of A Vision for Change. It was considered by a Cabinet committee. It is ready to go to Government. However, there is a longstanding position on not bringing forward new policies. There has been a view express…

Yes. I was going to be funny and say that Deputy Smyth could answer that, but I will not because it is a serious matter. It is ready to go to Government. There is a longstanding principle that I would not bring forward a new policy after an election but it could be brought by a new Minister for Health during his or her first or second week in the job.

I absolutely will do so. I discussed this with the chairperson of the HSE and the chief executive. I am conscious and clear about the fact that NPHET advises the Government from a public health point of view on the Covid-19 pandemic. The running of the health service falls to the HSE. I have had good discussions with the HSE on non-covid planning. I see Deputy Kelly nodding in agreement. Deputy Smyth is right. As I was saying earlier, we probably need to keep our capacity at 80% to 85% bed occupancy in our public h…

Certainly, on a North, South, east and west basis this is a matter I have discussed with my counterpart in Northern Ireland and I know the Taoiseach has spoken publicly about his discussions with the British Prime Minister. At a European level, there is no doubt this is discussed at various ministerial European Union Councils and the like. We must acknowledge that different countries are in very different places. For example, I know Germany is considering the idea of having a so-called travel bubble with a couple o…