John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Perhaps we can follow up on a written update. Regarding Sláintecare and the organic nature of it - this question is for Ms Magahy - 50 or 60 years ago we had an institutional setting, particularly for matters such as mental health, if that is not a misnomer. Then the emphasis was to move it - it continues to be to move it - into the community. However, Deputies and Senators, as constituency representatives, have known that there was significant pressure on the provision of community care in the home and in other community settings. What has been learned with regard to Sláintecare? For example, if this is not the only pandemic we ever experience in our lifetimes, what has the team learned about trying to deliver continuous care to people in their homes in a safe way? How much is the inability to deliver it safely due to the provision of items such as adequate PPE? Specifically, things like respite care would be a priority for a small number of parents in the constituency as they are under so much pressure. The numbers relating to the provision of respite care are significantly reduced, which means the parents of adult children or children with special needs are the ones who have probably carried the greatest burden outside of front-line staff during the pandemic due to their inability to access this. What stops them accessing it? It seems that the provision of proper PPE would be one part of it.

There are two parts to that question. It is my last question in this five minutes so the witnesses have time to respond to it. What lessons have there been regarding the provision of community health, be it is people's homes or in other community settings? What is stopping the provision of proper respite and other community care in facilities funded by the HSE but perhaps run by other organisations?