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

I thank the witnesses for their presentation and the work they have done on preparing the report. A lot of hard work has gone into it. It is a very good report in terms of how we can plan for the future.

May I revert to the staff issue? It is important because the pressures staff are under in many nursing homes were really challenging. In the expert panel's investigation and work done, did it find any case where there was a lack of support for staff among management or the owners of the nursing homes or care facilities? Did staff receive sufficient support?

My second question is on infection control. This is dealt with in section 7.2 of the recommendations. Clear guidelines are set out regarding infection control and what needs to be done. This is an issue I raised with HIQA last week. Do the witnesses feel nursing homes were adequately prepared for what was a new virus that spread at a phenomenal rate, as implied in the presentation? Was there a sufficient briefing by the whole healthcare sector, including from HIQA to the HSE and from the HSE to the private and public nursing homes? Was the expert panel happy with it?

Third, last week HIQA compared the numbers of deaths in both public and private nursing homes. On the basis of the numbers, I understand that approximately 20% of all people in nursing homes are in public nursing homes and 80% are in private nursing homes. The numbers of deaths in each reflected these proportions. I believe about 23% of the deaths were in public nursing homes while 77% were in the private nursing homes. With regard to infection control, where do we fall down in getting the message to the people on the front line that Covid presented a new challenge and that it had to be approached in a different way?