Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I confirm at the outset that I am on the Leinster House campus so I am able to participate in the committee meeting with parliamentary privilege. I join others in thanking all the front-line health service staff for everything they have done. We are approaching a year of this crisis and it looks very much like the situation will be prolonged for a number of months to come. We are certainly not out of the woods and yet there is some cause for hope with the roll-out of the vaccine, albeit it at a slower pace than everyone in the country would like, but it is progressing nonetheless. The situation should improve. As the witnesses have articulated, staff on the front line are still exposed to the ferocity of the situation and the risk involved every day. That must be acknowledged, appreciated and supported in terms of responsive actions by the Government and partners.

In recent weeks, Hazel Hartigan has been on "Operation Transformation". She is a nurse and a member of Ms Ní Sheaghdha's union. She has flown the flag so well for the nursing profession. We have had a glimpse behind the scenes each week as she bares her soul on RTÉ. We can see the stresses that it has put on her and her colleagues. The stresses do not stay behind in the hospital when staff close the door and sit into the car; they are carried home with them.

I wish to put a number of questions. The first relates to the vaccination of mental health staff. We continue to see real difficulties in the mid-west region. A fortnight or three weeks ago I put a number of questions to the Minister for Health.

He advised me there has been a devolved function in terms of vaccination roll-out for front-line staff, that each hospital group has received a certain number of batches of the vaccine and, using the disbursal criteria, the groups are ensuring their staff are vaccinated. In the mid-west and particularly in Ennis General Hospital the mental health nurses have been passed over. The front-line medical nurses have all been vaccinated and vaccination has moved down through other elements of the staff, including administrative staff, ground staff and people who during their working day, even though they are in a risk environment, have some mitigation measures around them such as perspex and the like. However, the mental health nurses continue to circulate and go into homes without the benefit of vaccination. Is the INMO aware of that? It is not to blame, of course, but is it aware that some of its members continue to be outliers and have been passed over in the chain on command?

I saw with great interest about two weeks ago that Bantry General Hospital in west Cork was a poster boy for vaccination. It had gone through all its staff and had started calling in the local GPs. The mid-west does not appear to be at that point. Will Ms Ní Sheaghdha comment on that? Is she aware of that breakdown of the chain of command there?