Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for coming here today and for their very detailed statements. I pay tribute to the extraordinary work nurses and midwives have done during the pandemic. We all applauded the front-line workers, including healthcare workers, in the Dáil but the testimony we have heard here this morning, as well as the anecdotal testimony we have all heard in recent months, suggests that those public expressions of support were not necessarily always matched by support where it mattered for nurses and midwives.

The testimony we have heard here this morning and the anecdotal testimony I am sure we have all heard in recent months suggests those public expressions of support were not necessarily always matched by support where it mattered for nurses and midwives.

I will come to childcare in a moment but, if I could, I would like to go back to the infection rates for nurses raised by Ms Ní Sheaghdha. She stated that the infection rate for Covid cases among nurses and midwives in Ireland is the highest on earth. That is an absolute disgrace in anybody's book. Why does Ms Ní Sheaghdha believe this infection rate is so high? Why did we have such a high infection rate, as an island on the edge of Europe with an advanced healthcare system that had more time to prepare than most European countries? Was enough done to protect Ms Ní Sheaghdha's members?