Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

All right. One part I left out there is respite for family carers. There are no respite places. I know a woman who wishes to go to Lisbon or somewhere for a family wedding. She is caring for her husband and there is no place available for her. There is only one place in Kenmare and it is similar in Killarney. They get a rota to which one has to adhere and she just cannot get respite for two weeks. It seems very tough. I am asking the Department to deal with those cases. We have to deal with today's problems as well. I have highlighted some of them.

Another problem I feel very strongly about, which has happened in the past and I do not wish to see happen again in the future, is the policy whereby family members were not allowed in to nursing homes and hospitals during the time of Covid. It was terrible that people, after all their time, died alone. What did not make any sense to me was that while the person was compos mentis, the family was not allowed to come in, but the very minute that the person went in to a coma or was going to die, all the family members were let in. How did that make sense? It made no sense. If it was to avoid spreading infection in the hospital or to other patients or staff, how was it that the family was allowed to come in at that point? I know of one person who lived for ten or 12 days in a coma. The family were all in around that person. However, the days that mattered, where they could put a spoon of something into the person's mouth or give the person a glass or water or orange, the family were not allowed in. I ask Mr. Watt to never again let that happen, because it did not make any sense. What his views are on that for the future?