Seán Kyne (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Ms O'Beirne and her team. As for the clinical side of things, I understand from an individual I know who does contact tracing for the HSE that the call one's are the calls to tell people they are positive. Is it absolutely necessary for those calls to be made by a person with clinical experience? I understand that part of the reason there were delays during the surge is that the HSE did not have enough clinical staff or staff with a clinical background. Is it a clinical or a science background? What are the specifics in that regard? Is such a background an absolute requirement? Why is it necessary? Is it because someone may have a difficult question about Covid? Could such a person be transferred over to somebody else? Would that not speed up the process?

The second area I wish to speak about is the testing. Are all speech and language therapists, occupational therapists and HSE dentists back in their old roles or are they still carrying out testing? Is there a timeline for those very important service providers to be back in their front-line positions? One of the main complaints I have received about the whole test and trace system is that front-line staff are being taken away from their important work to carry out this work. I understand that at the start, when the HSE was under pressure, it may have been necessary to have all hands on deck and get people who were available, but speech and language therapists, occupational therapists and dentists are hugely important in their own right in the work they should be doing, and they should be back at their work.