Ms Oonagh Buckley:

If the Deputy has verifiable evidence of a report to the Department on 24 March, we would like to see it because we have not been able to establish any evidence of knowledge in the Department prior to 30 March when a centre manager reported to our daily helpline that he had one case of a person self-isolating. That is the first report we have been able to find, but if Deputy Foley has verifiable evidence of something earlier, she should please share it with us and we can then check our systems.

We have to go by HSE advice on testing and our colleagues from the HSE have already explained the protocols around testing. As to the view of Deputy Foley that there is culpability around a lack of testing, I cannot concur with that because there are protocols around how testing should happen.

With regard to oversight of the service provider, the Department of Justice and Equality is the responsible Department for direct provision centres. They are our residents and are people for whom we have the ultimate responsibility. Normally we would have a protocol of three unannounced inspections of every centre every year. That is what we aim for. It has been difficult to achieve given the number of centres we are now running. In the context of the pandemic, we have to consider our staff and their health and safety.

As it happens, the Deputy may not be aware that a member of staff was present on the night the centre was opened. In fact, she stayed in the centre to see that everything was right. The Deputy will be aware that there were a number of teething problems as the centre opened because it was opened quickly and there was no time to spend four to six weeks, which is the norm, making sure everything was working correctly. The staff member who stayed made sure that the centre was as proposed, that people settled into it, that heating was provided in each room because, as the Deputy knows, the boiler had problems in the intervening period, and that the necessary arrangements were in place for the centre.

I understand what the Deputy is saying about the centre's staff who almost certainly came from a previous employer, as is the law. We also encourage centre managers to employ locally because that provides good jobs to communities. We have been very consistent. We opened the centre much faster than normal. We did not have the time to do what we normally do in these circumstances. The centre manager did not have the time. We have been in daily contact with the centre manager over the past six to eight weeks. I speak to the Minister every day about the Skellig Star in Cahersiveen. We have regular interactions with the staff and are constantly looking at what they are doing. We are happy that the centre is now being run very effectively and well. There are good facilities in the centre and we are happy it is working well for the residents that remain in the centre at this time.