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

There is a good book by Ida Milne on the Spanish flu in Ireland. There was a surge in November and a further surge the following March, then, thankfully, the flu disappeared. It looks like we are in the middle of a second surge and that it will be with us for a year and a half. What have we learned about respite and other matters that we might have been frightened to do at the start? Can PPE cover that? Can a child who has special needs, whose parents were used to that child being taken into a residential setting once or twice in a year, be provided with respite care? I know it is still restricted and am wondering what is stopping that, given that hospitals are still open. If the witnesses cannot answer, that is fine, and they can send details afterwards. Have visitations to people's homes returned to levels they were at?