I will have to find out from Saolta why it decided to move patients. Presumably, it was a clinically appropriate decision to do that but I will check that out. A review at the end of May is built in to the agreement and I am very open to the idea of looking at how we can use the hospital. I will write to the Deputy on the matter.

I know why the Deputy makes that point but I certainly would not be in any way flippant in respect of this. The decision to suspend cancer screening was taken by clinicians on public health grounds. I do not have responsibility for McDonald's but I do have responsibility for the safety of people in our health service, of its staff and of the women and men of Ireland who use it. The decision is in line with the advice not just in the Republic of Ireland but in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and New Zealand. I hav…

My priority with Covid-19 is to keep as many people in this country alive as possible. Through the incredible efforts of the Irish people, we have saved an awful lot of lives. My ongoing priority is to manage the virus to a point that we do not see a second wave and that we continue to see the virus suppressed while we try to live alongside it. That will be a difficult and delicate balance. My priority at that point is to begin to safely turn back on non-Covid-19 services. In his role as a Member of this House and …

I am open to correction but I believe the risk assessment was done by the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission. I did not carry it out but I hope the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission will make it available to Members if it has not already done so. The point the Deputy made about deaths because of but not of Covid-19 is a serious and accurate one. This will be a major challenge for all of us. While I am growing in optimism that we will get through this Covid-19 pandemic, I am not ignoring the awful loss of life an…

I welcome this opportunity to update this House once again on the Covid-19 disease and our national response to it. First and most important, I express my sympathy to the family and friends of those that have been lost to this disease since I was last in this House. The ways of mourning we hold dear have been taken away from us, compounding the deep sadness of the bereaved but I hope they know, and I hope it helps to know, we all as a country grieve with them. It is now more than ten weeks since the first case of C…

I suppose the short answer is that I do not agree but I appreciate the sentiment expressed by the Deputy in terms of wanting to make sure we treat as many public patients as possible in private hospitals. We, the taxpayers, effectively own or at least own the use of all the private hospitals in the country until the end of June. Under that agreement, we have the option of extending that agreement for at least a month and an option after that for extending for a further month based on a mutual agreement. As more tha…

I thank the Deputy for suggesting the establishment of a task force on mental health which I, truthfully, agree with. I would like to meet Members of this House in whatever the appropriate forum is to work out how to advance that, or perhaps through the Business Committee. I met representatives of Mental Health Reform and Jigsaw last week and discussed the Deputy's proposal of a mental health task force with them. I do not want to speak for them, but some of them were of the view that it should be linked to the pub…

I will write to the Deputy about youth workers and I will liaise with the Department of Children and Youth Affairs, but he makes an important point. Similarly, I will liaise directly with the representative bodies of mental health counsellors and the likes to try and provide guidance in that regard. It will all obviously come down to their ability to practise physical distancing safely. I know a number of counsellors have moved services online. As to the future direction for private health and private health insura…

I cannot do the issue of screening justice in 22 seconds, but perhaps another Deputy will give me an opportunity to expand on it. I will respond to the Deputy in writing and I take very seriously the point she makes. The decision to pause screening was made on public health grounds and the decision as to when it is safe to commence it will also be taken on the same grounds. The truth is that it will probably mean doing screening in a different way in terms of making sure the protections are in place. The most impor…

I will give the Deputy the latest figures I have for nursing home staff overall and then I will break them down for the private sector. The number of staff redeployed from the health service to long-term residential care facilities is 451, comprising 394 redeployed from the community and a further 57 redeployed from private nursing homes. In respect of private nursing homes, approximately 100 public staff have been redeployed from community settings to private nursing homes and a further 57 have been redeployed fro…

We need to prioritise those who are symptomatic, in the first instance, and get that message out. I will write to the Deputy about the issue of home help and PPE. I have had a good engagement with the sector. I have had, perhaps, a different experience from that of the Deputy, but I will write to her about it. I am happy to engage with the sector on the €35 million scheme. I will write to her about the direct provision letter.

I thank Deputy Ward for raising these issues. As he definitely knows, what committees are convened is definitely not a call for me or the Government, but I see no issue with his request. I think the Deputy's idea of a special sitting on the issue of mental health is a really good one. I do not want to use up the Deputy's time, but he asked me to engage with Jigsaw regarding Clondalkin. I had a very good engagement on that issue, and I will write to the Deputy, if I have not already.

I will engage further with Deputy Ward on that issue.

Pieta House does amazing work. I saw the recognition of that amazing work by the people of Ireland in their generosity last week through "The Late Late Show" fundraiser. Deputy Ward is asking, rightly, what the Government is going to do to match, or at least recognise, the incredible work Pieta House does. I am pleased to inform the Deputy that, in addition to the continuation of the existing HSE funding of some €2.03 million per year, as he rightly stated, the HSE and Pieta House have now formally agreed to additi…

I thank the Deputy for raising important mental health matters. I particularly thank him for acknowledging that when we rightly talk about mental health the impact of this pandemic on people across the age spectrum, including older people, is, indeed, a major priority. I would like the new Government to publish within its first month in office the A Vision for Change roadmap. I would like the House to convene whatever is the appropriate mechanism to make sure that we get on with implementing that document. That is …

I thank Deputy O'Donnell for the questions and for raising the issue of capacity in University Hospital Limerick, as he has done for many a year. I note his comments about people waiting in the emergency department, ED. From my own recollection of visiting that hospital and its relatively new ED, my understanding is that sometimes the most appropriate place might be to isolate someone within the ED, where there may be a single isolation room or the likes available. I will certainly ask for a report on the issue and…

I thank the Deputy for raising these matters. I had an excellent meeting with the Irish Dental Association last week. I was hoping to meet its representatives again today but the meeting had to be moved to tomorrow. They raised three issues. A lot of the dentists need funding to get their business back up and running. I discussed with them some of the supports announced by the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation relating to adaptations, rates and so on, and I have undertaken to write to the associatio…

I will try to get through each of the Deputy's questions. Regarding testing, the HSE has done an incredible job, moving heaven and earth to get to the point now where it will have the capacity to do up to 100,000 tests a week. Today, the HSE announced a plan for how, from next week, it intends to have end-to-end referral to contact tracing completion in less than three days in 90% of positive cases. That is a truthful acknowledgement that in the remainder of cases there could be some more complex contact tracing an…

I thank Deputy Kelly for the questions. I particularly thank him for acknowledging that many of the people on NPHET - I would go so far as to say all of the people on NPHET - are very fine people. They have done an incredible job in helping us save thousands of lives. I know how hard Deputy Kelly works and I know how hard I work. I have seen how incredibly hard these people work. About 20 of them have the word "doctor" in front of their names. They are working flat-out providing public health advice. I am very prou…

I do not think the letters are explosive. The letters show people working extraordinarily hard in real time. I said on a Saturday at a press conference that there is, of course, tension. I have been Minister for Health for four years and Deputy Kelly has been in Cabinet. When has there never been back and forth between officials working their backsides off to try to save people's lives in a global pandemic? However, what have they done is to have achieved their target. The letters should not be selectively quoted f…