Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I would like to begin by welcoming the witnesses and expressing unreserved gratitude for the superb work of the HSE and its staff in the past several months and on an ongoing basis. I wish to acknowledge that many lives have been saved as a consequence of that work. However, it would be remiss of me if I did not shed light on what my constituents regard as shortcomings within that service. My constituents believe that actions or inaction in recent weeks have resulted in the loss of lives. I refer to a direct provision centre at the Skellig Star Hotel in Cahirsiveen, County Kerry. I wish to pose some questions about this particular facility and about direct provision centres. I ask the witnesses to answer and I will then have two further points to make.

I note that the Department of Justice and Equality claims unequivocally that the HSE failed to inform its officials of a positive case of Covid-19 at a Travelodge hotel in Dublin on 8 March. This Travelodge was home to a large group of asylum seekers. Is it true that the HSE failed to inform the Department of Justice and Equality? The Department of Justice and Equality also claims that the HSE signed off at national level on the movement of people from that same Travelodge to the Skellig Star Hotel in Cahirsiveen, a five-hour bus journey, without testing the group prior to leaving Dublin or on arrival in Cahirsiveen. Is this true?

Is Mr. Reid aware that the HSE Cork Kerry local health office expressed serious concern and misgivings about the movement of a large group of people during a pandemic, and that it expressed grave reservations about the suitability of Cahirsiveen as a location for a direct provision centre due to a lack of primary care facilities in the area? Clearly, these concerns were overruled. I would like to ask Mr. Reid exactly who overruled them. Was it the HSE or was it the Department of Justice and Equality?

There is evidence of what I consider to be not best practice at this direct provision centre, at which there are now 26 or more confirmed cases of Covid-19. Residents who are not blood relatives continue to share rooms, although this is not best practice. Given the size of the premises, there is absolutely no social distancing. There is a shared laundry room, small public spaces, a shared lift, etc.

Equally, there was absolutely no professional deep cleansing of this facility at any stage following the confirmation of the 26 cases, and residents continue to live there. Could Mr. Reid explain also, as the body charged with public health, how from the first diagnosis of Covid-19, it took the HSE 39 days to have a public health presence on the campus of the Skellig Star? I will allow him to answer those questions and then, with your indulgence, Chairman, I have two further points to make.