Professor Cecily Kelleher:

We have done our level best to make the recommendations that we think could ameliorate what we saw already, but we are in an uncharted situation here. We are dealing with a pandemic of a condition where every day we learn more about its impact and effects. We have seen that Covid-19 is a highly contagious condition and that it can have long-term sequelae, so we have to continue to see what the impact of that might be in the population. We are trying to control the pandemic in this country and doing everything we can to keep it minimised and contained. We endorse that insofar of its importance. I hope the recommendations we are making around what we are learning about this particular sector and what we owe older people in policy terms will mean that we can see a change in that in the long term.