Ms Orla Hegarty:

I will answer the questions in reverse order. Nursing homes, community hospitals, long-term care facilities and that kind of institutional housing, including direct provision and other similar locations, really need to be considered in the same way as schools should be for the autumn. This is a new disease and vaccination is also new. The duration of immunity is unknown, particularly in older populations and among people who might have a low response to vaccination. I would definitely have a concern about nursing homes, care homes and community hospitals. There could be a further problem in the autumn. In the same way that schools need to be preparing now, those buildings should be considered as representing an upcoming risk in the autumn.

As Mr. Jones has said, there are international standards that we can plug into if they are adopted. In particular, we cannot assume that an engineer or an architect will be available to every business and building owner. People need to be able to pick up and read simple advice to allow them to make careful decisions, whether that is turning off a unit in a hairdressing salon or opening a back door in a shop, restaurant or wherever. Beyond the technical advice, it is very important that practical guidance is given to people about some of this.

The Deputy spoke about older buildings. There are only 86 hospital buildings. It is well within the resources available to look at each of those buildings and carry out an assessment of where the risk areas are. The entire building may not have a problem; there may be pockets of risk. In the short term, simple implementation measures could be made even within days in some cases.