Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. Breslin and Dr. Holohan for all the work they have done. Nobody has doubts about that. Dr. Holohan said he has a concern about health workers. The infection rate among healthcare workers is very high - Dr. Holohan said it is 31%. Why is it so much higher among Irish healthcare workers than it is in other jurisdictions? It is one of the highest. Why is that the case? What advice did the HSE get on healthcare workers? I have been asking about this since the second week of March. According to the NPHET minutes the team got advice twice from the expert advisory group, on 7 March and 10 March, relating to healthcare workers. On 16 March I asked what those advices were and I still have not received an answer. I have asked repeatedly to see the advice, recommendations and minutes from the expert advisory group. This is terribly important given the high level of infection among our healthcare workers.

To bring Dr. Holohan up to speed on the position, and I do not understand this, an agency nurse who was recruited by a Dublin hospital two weeks ago has tested positive for the coronavirus in recent days. She was not tested when entering that hospital, where there are many elderly people.

I do not understand this. I would like to see the advice that was given by the expert advisory group in March about healthcare workers and I would like an explanation on why we have such a high infection rate among healthcare workers. How on earth can we have a situation where healthcare workers are coming in to work with vulnerable people two months into this crisis when we know there is a problem with healthcare workers' infection rate and that they are not being tested before they start work with elderly people? We then discover it two weeks later. Are healthcare workers who go to visit the elderly in their homes being tested before they do that work? Are there regular tests of healthcare workers when they are working to make sure they are not infected? I would appreciate answers to those questions. Could we please see the advice and minutes of the expert advisory group, for which I have been asking for two months?