Colm Burke (Cork North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chairman. I shall try to keep my contribution as short as possible because many people wish to speak.

I thank all of the people in the HSE for all of the work they have done over the last number of weeks and months in very difficult circumstances. Everyone appreciates the dedication and commitment by everyone involved in dealing with this crisis.

I shall revisit an issue that I raised earlier this morning.

It relates to congregated settings and setting out a list of where there were risks at an early stage. In a number of facilities there were more than ten deaths. In one of them that I am aware of there were six beds per ward. I note that Mr. Reid spoke in his report about mass testing in 372 mental health residential service locations and in 1,269 residential care facilities. What numbers of people are we talking about in each of these facilities, that is, the number of residents in the facilities and the number of staff? Second, has the HSE prioritised where there are no isolation facilities available if an outbreak occurs in one of the facilities? That happened in one of the facilities I know of and there were no isolation facilities available. Is a clear plan of action ready to be put in place if there is an outbreak?

The second matter I wish to mention relates to people working in the healthcare sector. Some 7,815 positive cases are in healthcare. Is there a breakdown of the number of people in the HSE and those in the private healthcare sector? Of that 7,815 do we know how many ended up having to be admitted to hospital and to intensive care? It is important that we get that information. What action is being taken to reduce the risk to healthcare professionals, be they care assistants, nurses or doctors? What has been identified that should have been put in place and must now be put in place to deal with and try to reduce the level of contamination of people who are working in the healthcare sector?