Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, to the meeting. He will provide us with an update on the Covid-19 response and the health provisions of budget 2021 and related matters. The Minister is joined by Mr. Gerry O’Brien, director, Department of Health. I am told the Minister of State at the Department of Health with responsibility for mental health and older people, Deputy Butler, will join us shortly. The Minister of State at the Department of Health with responsibility for public health, well-being and national drugs strategy, Deputy Feighan, is joining via video link as is Mr. Paul Bolger, director, Department of Health.

Before we hear the Minister's opening statement I must point out to the witnesses presenting remotely that there is uncertainty as to whether parliamentary privilege will apply to witnesses giving evidence from a location outside the precincts of Leinster House. This includes Ministers of State. If witnesses are directed, therefore, by me to cease giving evidence on a particular matter, they must respect that direction.

Before we get the Minister's opening statement, which some of us have just received, as this is the first meeting we have had with him I wish to say we look forward to meeting with him and his Minsters of State. We want to work with him and not against him. However, last week we had witnesses before us who deal with tracking and tracing and the issue of key staff seconded to that area was discussed. I think we would all agree that the use of trained professional occupational therapists, OTs, physiotherapists and speech and language therapists is less than ideal. It is impacting on other services and is not sustainable in the long term. I think we would all agree that our health service has to be about more than just responding to Covid and while it is a priority, we cannot ignore or disregard other life-changing and life-saving elements of the service.

To put today's meeting in context, the general secretary of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, Ms Phil Ní Sheaghdha, was before the committee two weeks ago. She gave evidence that across the State, 15 nurses a week are contracting Covid-19. This is probably a failure from the point of view of occupational health and safety, but what can we do to reduce the number to as close to zero as possible? Perhaps we can support front-line workers who are living with the long-term fallout of Covid-19 and that was one of the points Ms Ní Sheaghdha made.

Student nurses were also mentioned and they have been working above and beyond the call of duty during this crisis. There was a scheme in place earlier and I do not know if the Minister will address this point in his statement but we would be keen for some sort of scheme to be introduced for them. Do the Minister and the Department have any plans to work with training colleges and hospital groups to bring in a standardised, liveable payment scheme for student nurses?

The issue of medical cards for the terminally ill is a topical issue which I raised last year with the then Minister for Health, Deputy Harris. I believe that will be discussed today. It came as a surprise to many of us that it was not included in budget 2021. There was support from members of all parties and none in the Oireachtas. If the Minister does not have time today, he might come back to us on that point at some stage.

The committee looks forward to the Minister's introductory remarks.