Dr. Tony Holohan:

Yes. I will engage with the chair of the expert advisory group group about when the minutes and advice can be provided. We have, for the most part, acted on all the advice the expert advisory group has given to NPHET. I see no difficulty in making that available to the Deputy. There is new guidance from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, ECDC, from this morning about the question of testing. We will look at what that means for testing here, as will other countries. I cannot answer about the specifics of why an individual nurse is not tested, as the Deputy will appreciate.

We have had a significant programme of testing throughout the residential and community sector, including in nursing homes. Staff and patients in all settings have been tested. A public health-led set of decisions has determined who gets tested and when. The team at the Health Protection Surveillance Centre, HSPC, which is doing that work is continuing to assess how we should appropriately prioritise testing with regard to public health. The next meeting of NPHET was due to be this morning, and will consider the question of prioritisation, with regard to the next categories that we think are important for testing. What does the ongoing programme of testing for people who work or reside in long-term residential care facilities need to be? It will address people in exactly the categories about which the Deputy is asking.