Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy. I dealt with the question of the Chief Medical Officer's comments on restrictions from Deputy McNamara earlier but it is important to say that, when putting widespread national restrictions in place, it comes from the National Public Health Emergency Team, NPHET, and from our clinicians. I stand by the judgment of the Chief Medical Officer. To be clear, he never said that individual nursing homes or individual hospitals could not put in restrictions but the idea that blanket restrictions are put in place, or restrictions on any of our movements, by anyone other than the NPHET is not a place I will go. The NPHET is the right structure to do that.

In regard to the priority, let us be clear. Nursing homes are our priority. I do not think anyone will doubt that we are all unified in regard to that. We need to take some serious actions in this regard. The answer to the Deputy's question is that there are 61 direct staff - that is the last figure I saw - working in our nursing homes as of today. It may have gone up since then but that is the figure I have. There are 18 Covid-19 response teams in place. It does take time to put those in place. Progress is being made. Incredible leadership was shown by the union movement yesterday in terms of everybody agreeing to the redeployment agreement. There was very good progress that will make a difference. I want to thank people for that. We are seeing substantial PPE deliveries. We have seen training in PPE usage rolled out across the nursing home sector, with more than 1,000 participants. We have a situation now where 183 nursing homes have access to telephone advice and support; 180 have access to infection prevention and control support; 162 have access to public health support; and, 171 have access to PPE support also.

The Deputy had a couple of specific questions. In regard to the private deal, I have sent that to the Oireachtas today to lay it before these Houses. I fully agree with the Deputy. It should be out there. It should be transparent. People should see it.

In that regard, I will say briefly that under the terms of the agreement the HSE will secure 100% of the capacity of the private hospitals. The hospitals will work in co-operation with the hospital groups. The heads of terms have been signed by the 19 acute private hospitals and it is expected that final contracts with individual private hospitals or groups of private hospitals will be agreed shortly. The arrangement is in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. It is for a three-month period with an option for the HSE to extend it for a further month and by mutual agreement thereafter. It is not possible to indicate a precise cost estimate for the use of the private hospital facilities as the rationale for the arrangement relates to the Covid-19 epidemic for which no one can provide a definitive time horizon but there are significant safeguards, including eligible costs, third party verification and termination built in against a necessarily uncertain disease background.

Under the arrangement, the private hospitals' recent management accounts will be examined by a firm of accountants acting on behalf of the HSE. Payments will be determined on actual costs incurred and will be subject to verification and, as part of an agreement, a process is being put in place to resolve any disputes. Under the arrangement, a participating private hospital is due 80% of its estimated monthly costs in advance from the HSE. Costs incurred are subject to verification, as I have just set out, and any difference is subject to a claw-back in the subsequent month. The HSE has made advanced payments for April totalling €90.2 million. This is based on estimates provided by participating hospitals and, importantly - I want to say this before people say that is the final figure - will be adjusted based on verified actual costs. Can I continue?

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