Mr. Jim Breslin:

No. I do not agree with that. I do note that Mr. Daly also commented very favourably at least half a dozen times on the extent of the engagement he had with the Department and the HSE over the period. The documents we have released to the committee - 160 separate communications - show just how much engagement and problem-solving was going on at the time. The fact that we were dealing in a national situation with the scaling up of PPE supply and testing did have implications for the nursing home sector but that was not the nursing home sector being discriminated against. It was quite the reverse. There was a clear focus on vulnerable older people, both in the community and in nursing homes, and a clear process in place to try to get as much support to nursing homes as possibly could be provided. That was continued throughout March and into April. We can see that in that as the situation worsened in nursing homes we were able to put further support in place, including further infection control advice and the community teams that were put in place on a multidisciplinary basis to respond and to get the situation back under control.