Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputies Connolly and Harkin. In response to Deputy Connolly, I have to put on the record of this House that whether they appeared in a briefing document or not, nursing homes certainly were a constant source of attention. I say that because HIQA, which regulates our nursing homes, is on the National Public Health Emergency Team so the nursing homes regulator has been sitting at the table and doing a good job. Many of the decisions we have made have rightly focused on older people, a proportion of whom reside in nursing homes. The chief executive officer of the HSE specifically sat down with the representatives of nursing homes on 19 February to discuss Covid-19 preparedness. I am told by local HSE staff that there was an unprecedented level of engagement by individual HSE officials with nursing homes. That is not to say in any manner or means that enough has been done. We need to do more. This is a pandemic in which we take actions every single day. We then take another set of actions and then another set. That is what we are doing. We will have to continue to do more because not just in Ireland but across the European Union and the world we are seeing particular challenges in regard to breaking the transmission. We are trying to break the transmission of this virus and it is harder to do that in congregated settings. That is not a reason for not doing it. That is why I spoke earlier about wanting to test asymptomatic patients so that we do not have to wait for a symptom as we can test and see if a person has it, and looking for an enhanced role for HIQA, not in terms of HIQA being difficult for nursing homes but HIQA saying, "These are the standards. Let us make sure everybody can adhere to them". It is about wanting to look at isolation facilities. If staff are living among each other and bringing the virus from one nursing home to the other inadvertently, it is about providing them with alternative accommodation in a voluntary sense.

On the issue of clusters, I will come back to the Deputy if I answer the question wrongly but a cluster is two or more cases within 72 hours in one setting. That setting could be a family home or it could be anywhere.

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