I will do my very best. First, I congratulate the Deputy on his election as chair of the Special Committee on Covid-19 Response-----

-----and look forward to any co-operation my Department can provide him with in discharging his duties. It will be an important role. I gave figures earlier regarding the enhanced nurse contract. When I was last asked about this in this House last month, just over 3,000 staff nurses had been appointed to the new scale. That was up from 700 in February. I believe the number is approximately 4,500 now. I expect a significant further increase on that in the next week or so when I get updated figures. At that stage, I …

I welcome this opportunity to update this House once again on the Covid-19 disease and our response to it. I wish to start by expressing my condolences to the family and friends of those that have been lost to this disease since I was last in this House. It is an individual loss but there is also a sense of national loss. We share in your loss. Today, I will update the House in two ways, by providing the latest information on our ongoing modelling work and by sharing some key messages from my recent discussions tod…

I thank the Deputy for raising what is a massively important issue. He is right that it is entirely possible that this country, and indeed many others, will come through the Covid pandemic, albeit with undoubted tragedy, pain and hurt, only for more people to pass away or get very sick from other illnesses through secondary morbidity and secondary mortality. We need to work collectively against that. As a result of the considerable efforts of the Irish people, we have, thankfully, not yet seen our hospitals and int…

I thank Deputies Donnelly, Butler and Cahill. To conclude the conversation with Deputy Donnelly in regard to cancer care and, in fairness, I know he said this also, it need not go the way that it potentially will go in other countries because of the efforts the people here have made and the leadership that our healthcare professionals have shown. We now have an opportunity to really ramp up our non-Covid-19 care plans alongside our Covid-19 care plans, and I want to assure the Deputy of my Department's and the HSE'…

I will do so. The Deputy has hit the nail on the head, as did Deputy Butler, that if we can get to a point where nursing homes are in a position to use their own staff, as I know the staff are willing to do, it will further remove the potential delays. The national ambulance service has been incredible and its staff have done an amazing job, but if we can take out that piece and do the testing in-house, it will speed up the process. The HSE's own testing target is to have an average wait from swab to result of one …

I thank Deputy O'Reilly for her questions. On the section 39 agencies, I will examine the issue and revert to the Deputy on it. On the point regarding the geriatricians, I have written to the Deputy on it. The short answer is that we are examining how we can do something not too dissimilar to what the Deputy suggests. On nursing homes, I have discussed with the Chief Medical Officer the need for the National Public Health Emergency Team to review the issue of long-term residential care in nursing homes, about which…

It may be a different issue but I want to thank them. As I have already acknowledged, there is a lot happening around the country that I do not like when it comes to not extending a céad míle fáilte to people from other jurisdictions. I want to thank them in that regard. Deputy O'Reilly asked for specific figures. To ensure accuracy, I prefer when figures are given out by the Health Protection Surveillance Centre, HPSC. The figure I have is that there have been 164 confirmed cases of residents in direct provision a…

Maybe some people do not want the answers. I can speak fast but not that fast. In response to Deputy Ó Murchú, I extend my sincere sympathy to the families, friends and staff in Dealgan nursing home, which he referenced. I will have to liaise with the HSE on the specific question on the RCSI's involvement. I know it has been playing a proactive role. The Deputy wants an assurance that the role will continue. I will revert to him directly or through the HSE on this in the coming days. To anybody who has any concern …

I am scheduled to meet with the Irish Dental Association tomorrow afternoon. As Deputy Feighan has said, guidance has been provided. Obviously we must follow public health advice but we want to have a conversation with the association, as we do with other sectors, with regard to how dentists operate in the new normal, at the appropriate time. I will not pre-empt that meeting but my officials and I will meet with the association representatives tomorrow. On capital projects, we will be guided on our construction pro…

I thank the Deputy for his contributions. I am always in awe of the Green Party's knowledge of all things to do with the app. Every week it is very impressive. I hope that it augurs well if the party comes into government in respect of the progressing of these matters. This app will be a big help. To make a point the Chief Medical Officer would make if he were here, this app will be complementary to what he would describe as the shoe leather, which is the ongoing work in contact tracing. Some countries talk about u…

There are many questions. I have two minutes and seven seconds in which to respond so I will do my best. On Dealgan nursing home, I will certainly keep all the Deputies from the constituency of Louth informed. We will work through it on a cross-party basis. Yes, I want full transparency. I have no difficulty with the letters being published. To be very clear, however, I must state, because I believe it could make life easier for everybody, that NPHET contains the HSE, the Department of Health, HIQA and the HPRA. It…

I agree that we need to avoid a bad flu season at the same time as Covid. The Deputy will have seen my comments that I am engaging with Departments for a much more expansive immunisation programme around flu, removing barriers and so on. It has also been though the HSE board. I will return to her with an update shortly. I met Mental Health Reform today at the Deputy's request and invitation and I am more than happy to meet the Disability Action Coalition before we meet again next week. I have started initial discus…

The objective, which I believe outlined in my opening statement, is 100,000 tests a week for at least six months, and that is also the aim of the Chief Medical Officer.

I assure Deputy Smith that I am never glib when it comes to this pandemic. I was making a particular point because there has been a great deal of commentary - sometimes it is made in this House and sometimes it is made elsewhere - on whether the nursing home sector was left behind. I hear it and I want to respond to it because that is what we can do in here. I am not sure whether the Deputy could point to many other countries where there has been a widespread testing programme of asymptomatic residents and staff, a…

There is a letter. If it has not gone out, it will be with the Deputy tomorrow. I apologise to him about that. Following negotiations between the HSE, supported by my Department and the private hospitals, an overarching agreement with the 18 private acute hospitals was agreed at the end of March. The details of the arrangement are contained in the heads of terms, which I laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas on 16 April. Under the agreement, payment to the private hospitals will be on a cost-only, open-book mode…

I think the Deputy is correct that there will need to be a very robust regulatory framework in place. It is in the absolute interest of our national effort and, beyond public health, even in the interest of our economy to make sure we protect people's health and do not allow anywhere to become a cluster for the spread of infection. I know work is going on between unions and employers, supported by Government, on those protocols. I am happy to keep the Deputy updated.

Certainly, when this pandemic ends there will need to be a review so that lessons can be learned right across Ireland's response because we would be stupid not to do that. We need to make sure that we know what we did well and what we could have done better. When one is operating in the middle of a pandemic, one is making decisions in real time and often decisions have to be made on the spot very quickly. It is important that we learn in that regard. I also believe an objective review would perhaps debunk some of t…

I can use my time as I wish - Croatia, Hungary, Greece and Bulgaria. This is a country which, despite the myth put out, is testing an awful lot because we believe we need to test, test, test. Setting up testing systems was bloody challenging, and does the Deputy know what the HSE did? It did not give up like other health services did. It decided not to give up on testing in the community but keep at it. I am very proud of the work it has done and we will swipe back capacity. In regard to recruitment, the figures ar…

I thank Deputies O'Donoghue and Michael Collins for their questions. As rightly stated by the Deputies, I will meet the Irish Dental Association tomorrow. As the Deputies will know, the roadmap announced by the Government on Friday, 1 May, referred at a high level to wanting to increase the delivery of non-Covid care and services alongside Covid-19 care to meet demand. There are a range of practicalities that now need to be addressed, some of which we have been discussing today in this House. In light of the advice…