Mr. Paul Bell:

At the beginning of this whole process, contradictory information was given about the wearing of face masks. We found there was a serious weakness with regard to the members we represent in community care. We decided that we would support those members by trying to provide a limited number of face masks until that policy changed. The policy changed with the HSE on the quality of PPE, but the Government was making it quite clear that PPE was being provided. There were ample amounts of PPE but it seemed it did not pass the test the HSE attributed to such equipment and some of that equipment could not be used. Over recent weeks this issue has been addressed more and more. Again, however, some of the issues we faced were around contradictory messaging or when something happened in one region and not in another. The issue of face masks was one of those.