Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am sure Deputies appreciate that some of their questions are going to be very specific and I may not have the answers to them. I absolutely agree with what Deputies have said, that transparency is really important here. If we want to keep the trust of the people, we need to be transparent, but I would also ask for understanding from Deputies that we do not always know the answers to the questions that we are asked. A lot of things are happening in real time at the moment, and one thing we do not want to do is answer a question or put a number or statistic out there only to find out shortly afterwards that it was incorrect. I know in particular that our doctors and experts have a concern around that. They do not want to put statistics and information out there that may turn out to be incorrect. There is so much happening at the one time it can be hard to get the information out there.

As regards decisions that are made on social distancing, on school closures, on visiting nursing homes and hospitals, which Deputy Doherty mentioned earlier, these are all made on the advice of the Chief Medical Officer, CMO, and the National Public Health Emergency Team, NPHET. These are our doctors, our scientists, our experts. They might not always be right - they have to make their decisions based on the science and information available to them - but I do think we should support them, I do think we should trust them, and I do not think that we should say anything that might be perceived to undermine them in any way. The decisions the Government makes on all these areas are guided by the advice from those doctors, those experts, those scientists, and we publish their advice as we make those decisions.

In terms of PPE, this is absolutely essential to protect staff - we all know that - and also to protect patients from getting infected by staff, which can happen too. We have ordered about €200 million worth of PPE. Just to put that in context, that is a 13-year supply of PPE. It is an absolutely enormous amount. Thirty plane-loads from China are coming. It is not all coming from China. Some of it is coming from Ireland, some of it is coming from other parts of Europe. Thirty plane-loads are due, and they are coming one by one. There are delays on and off that are not necessarily under our control. Some Chinese provinces have now brought in customs checks where they want to check the quality of the PPE before it leaves the country. We have been checking it when it comes in, but that change is creating a delay that we would not have anticipated a day or two ago.

In terms of masks, aprons, gloves and all those things, I am told that we have a good supply. Of gowns, less so. We have enough, but a much shakier level of supply. This is a problem that absolutely every country is facing. There is a global shortage. Countries are gazumping other countries, offering to come in and pay cash and buying for a higher price PPE that has already been ordered. There are new companies now getting involved in making PPE, which is a great thing because there has been a massive increase in demand. New companies all over the world, including Ireland, are now getting involved in making PPE, but there are difficulties. That does create problems with quality and delivery. If a company is making something for the first time, it does not always get the quality right. If a company is doing something for the first time, it cannot always honour its commitments when it comes to delivery. That is just the reality of the situation.

We have also had an issue with donations. Donations are very welcome, but unfortunately donations, particularly where they are dropped off at a hospital or dropped off at a healthcare facility, are not always checked and are not up to standard. People have seen that the arms on PPE gowns were only three quarter length. That was a donation.

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