Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for those questions. I will try to deal with them sequentially.

Regarding the mortality rate, the first point I would make is that, in a pandemic, one can often see its flattening lagging behind some of the other indicators. We are now beginning to see our ICU and hospital admissions and our growth rate beginning to go in the right way, but our mortality rate is not. That is, and should be, a cause of concern.

It is fair to say that assessing comparisons of mortality statistics, as the Deputy acknowledged, is not a perfect science and would require considerable analysis of population structures, demographics, socio-economic factors, health service capacity, transmission patterns, pandemic preparedness, etc. It is also fair to say that the reporting of mortality figures differs greatly between countries, including our nearest neighbours in the UK where they only report deaths occurring in acute hospitals. Other countries, including Ireland, report all known deaths relating to Covid-19 regardless of the setting.

It is also acknowledged that, despite the fact that we undoubtedly have testing challenges, we still rank third highest out of 22 EU and UK countries in terms of tests completed as a percentage of overall population. That is according to the Our World in Data website. This factor is likely to have an impact on our mortality figures. We are actively looking for the virus and, therefore, confirming more people have died of it.

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