Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will wrap up my questions to Mr. Daly before moving on to question Mr. Taylor. We will never know how Covid got into nursing homes, hospitals, homes and communities. We can only surmise. During the first three months of the year more than 2,500 people entered nursing home care under the fair deal scheme. Every month 1,000 people transfer from acute hospitals into private and voluntary nursing homes. I accept that Mr. Daly may be unable to answer my next questions. How many people transferred in March after restrictions were imposed? How many of these patients from the acute sector were tested before going into the nursing homes? The crux of the issue is that these patients may have had Covid without realising it and may have, involuntarily, brought it into the nursing homes.