Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank our witnesses for attending today. It seems clear given the scale of clusters, outbreaks and fatalities in nursing homes that opportunities were missed to support the nursing homes and prevent contagion into them. Various vectors into the nursing homes have been discussed today, including staff being discharged from hospitals, for example. I believe one of the reasons is that nursing homes and older people have had no voice in the room where the decisions are being taken, which is the National Public Health Emergency Team. I have put this to the Minister for Health repeatedly in the Dáil and he has repeatedly told me that nursing homes do have a voice and HIQA is their voice. The Minister's formal position is that HIQA is the voice of nursing homes on NPHET. We have a limited number of minutes from NPHET meetings but on 30 January, the second meeting, HIQA was present and nursing homes were not discussed. On 4 February, the third meeting, HIQA was present and nursing homes were not discussed. At the fourth meeting on 11 February, HIQA was present and nursing homes were not discussed. At the fifth meeting on 18 February, HIQA was present and nursing homes were not discussed. On the eighth meeting on 25 February, HIQA was present and nursing homes were not discussed. At the ninth meeting on 3 March, HIQA was present and nursing homes were not discussed. At the 12th meeting, on 10 March, HIQA was present and nursing homes were discussed. The action that was agreed was that the unilateral restriction of visiting to nursing homes was not required at that time. At the same meeting, NPHET agreed that we needed to look seriously at closing all of the schools in the country because the outbreak had become so severe. Within 36 hours, it made that recommendation and the Taoiseach implemented it two and a half days later. If HIQA has been the voice of nursing homes on NPHET, and given that it has clearly been at all of the meetings, why did it never raise the crisis that was emerging in nursing homes? When the crisis was finally raised, why did HIQA stand over a decision that visitor restrictions were unnecessary which the nursing homes had put in place themselves because they were aware that there was a crisis?