Liam Twomey (Wexford, Fine Gael)

This reply is not good enough. I told the Minister at last Thursday's meeting of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health and Children that in the event of a pandemic of avian flu, there was a plan. The plan starts with putting the Minister for Defence, Deputy O'Dea, in charge and consists of a book, approximately two inches thick, on what to do in the event of avian flu affecting the population.

Ireland has an epidemic of MRSA. Professor Drumm's comments in this respect are important because they lead on to the question. When I asked him how many front-line staff in our hospitals had been swabbed for MRSA, he replied:

We have not swabbed staff at large in the hospitals . . . If we swabbed everybody in the system for MRSA, how many staff would immediately be taken out of the system?

The Minister has just stated it does not matter whether staff have MRSA. At the same joint committee meeting Professor Drumm stated that simply shaking hands could spread MRSA. While a plan for MRSA is desperately needed, is it true the HSE has only got as far as drawing up draft guidelines on how it will deal with MRSA in hospitals? Professor Drumm has no idea of the number of staff affected. Subsequently, he stated that when one did swab staff——

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