Mr. Paul Reid:

The HSE issued a direction about agency staff very early on in the process. Our preference is that we have dedicated staff in dedicated settings, particularly in areas of high transmission in community. We have said this before, but it would still be unfair to pinpoint one particular cohort for the transmission of disease within these settings because it is never directly linear. That will be a part of the learning, however.

I will make a general point about costs and PPE. I made the point earlier that the HSE has been providing significant amounts of PPE to the public and private sectors, and will continue to do so at a scale that is required. That is our approach.

There are some learnings, as the Deputy and others have touched on, about staffing. The clinical advisory group on older persons of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland, RCPI, has done a recent assessment and will draw learnings around staff, staffing structures, permanent staffing, particularly in private nursing homes. Those lessons must be learned for the future.

I will ask my colleague to make a quick comment.