Colm Burke (Cork North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I wish to go back to the very start, when the committee was set up on 8 March and it followed on from there. The people we seem to have missed out on were those in nursing homes and mental health facilities and I am interested in learning from that. I note that this committee got a copy of letter recently, dated 2 April, to HIQA asking it to set out and deal with particular issues. Are there issues now that we need to plan for into the future? I refer in particular to what occurred with regard to nursing homes, whereby we do not appear to have taken action at an early enough stage. Nursing homes themselves do not appear to have taken action and the agencies involved with nursing homes do not appear to have looked at what was happening in other countries, including Italy, with regard to care facilities and nursing homes. There was a four-week gap when action was not taken. Is there something that we need to highlight now and for which we need to be ready?