Ms Mary Dunnion:

I thank Deputy O'Dowd. In 2019, which are probably the more up-to-date figures, 238 inspections included regulation 27, which is the one particular to infection control. Of these 238 inspections, 20 cases were not compliant and a significant number were only substantially compliant. There are several reasons for this. The national standards for community centres called for a national integrated approach to infection control and antimicrobial stewardship. To date, this is not in place. On the rare occurrences when outbreaks of winter vomiting and influenza occur these procedures are effective but the national standards are not able to deal with the case of a pandemic.

One of the big issues that makes centres not compliant is the premises. In this context, there is a statutory instrument that gives nursing homes until January 2021 to become compliant. Until they reach this level of compliance they cannot be compliant with the standards of infection control.