Dr. Siobhán Kennelly:

The guidance on visiting has been reviewed on a number of occasions. There has been extensive collaboration with nursing home providers and the teams in the nursing homes. Clearly, we are aware of the issue, particularly when people are faced with outbreak situations with constrained staffing and very sick residents. As a geriatrician, I have been in a number of nursing homes when they have been experiencing these particular circumstances. I have looked after people who were dying in such circumstances. The situations described by the Deputy deeply affect the staff members who are looking after the patients and residents, as they do their family members. I am personally familiar with the efforts everybody is making at this time to try to support residents in their place of care.