Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Go raibh míle maith agat. I thank everyone who sent me kind wishes. Thank you all very much. It was very thoughtful of you.

Having been sick and having experienced the virus at first hand, it sharpens one's understanding of everything surrounding this public health emergency, most particularly the big gap there has been between, on the one hand, the very ambitious announcements that have been made and in many cases re-announced, and on the other hand, what was happening on the ground. I waited 16 days for a test result, and this was not unique - far from it. In fact, others waited longer times, and in some cases these were front-line healthcare workers. I think we can all accept that this is unacceptable and scandalous and that it needs to be fixed. The Taoiseach says that it is. I hope we see evidence of that fact. Just this week, I heard a woman tell her story on RTÉ radio, and she is still waiting for her deceased husband's test results. That man was tested on 27 March, and this woman said she cannot get a death certificate because of this delay.

The announcement and re-announcement of testing capacity never became a reality on the ground, and so now we have new targets. The Taoiseach said this morning that we have a target of 100,000 tests per week. That has to be real, it has to happen, it has to be seen to be happening and it has to be more than an exercise in collecting swabs and samples. The actual tests have to happen. We need efficient reporting and, crucially, contact tracing because contact tracing is reliant on the result of the tests being reported back.

The Taoiseach says he is concerned about complacency, and so am I, although it has to be recorded and said that communities, families and the Irish people have rallied magnificently to what have been difficult asks of them in very difficult circumstances. Nonetheless, I share the Taoiseach's concern on complacency. I am also concerned about mixed messages and kite flying from the Government. All of us want to see people back at work, businesses back functioning, schools and colleges and so on reopened. We all believe in that, but I put it to the Taoiseach that it is neither plausible, advisable or safe to unwind public health restrictions until we have a wide, comprehensive and efficient testing system and the follow-up contact tracing, because the mantra has been to test, isolate and trace. We know that is how we keep people safe. We know that this is how we manage to stay ahead of this virus, not just in the here and now but in the coming weeks and months until we have effective anti-viral medications and, ultimately, a vaccine. Until that time, however, we need to be clear. Precautions and measures will have to be taken to keep people safe and to avoid deaths.

I again record our sympathies for all of those who have buried their loved ones in such heartbreaking and incredibly difficult circumstances.

The good news, as the Taoiseach has correctly recorded, is that our health service has not been overwhelmed.

The good news is that we have collectively managed to flatten the curve. However, we must be cautious. Moving too quickly could allow the virus scope to spread and surge at a later date and perhaps even to mutate and become even more virulent. We cannot allow things to do that under any circumstances. There must be absolute clarity from the Government to all of us on that point.

Caithfidh mé ceist a chur ar an Taoiseach faoin ngéarchéim inár dtithe altranais. Mar is eol don Taoiseach, tá níos mó ná leath de na daoine a fuair bás sa Stát ó Covid-19 tar éis bás a fháil sna tithe altranais. Tá chuile cheann de na básanna seo fiúntach. I must ask the Taoiseach about the heartbreaking crisis in our nursing homes where more than half of the deaths in the State from Covid-19 have occurred. Every one of these deaths is meaningful, a life lost and a story ended in the most awful circumstances, leaving behind families and friends who are absolutely devastated. The Government's approach to nursing homes has been characterised by a lack of urgency and mistakes and I ask for clarity on several points. The lack of urgency gave rise to some very important issues that have not yet been answered satisfactorily. We still lack a clear answer about why the Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, refused to meet Nursing Homes Ireland in the early stages of the crisis despite its repeated requests. Why was this? The Minister only agreed to meet in late March when Nursing Homes Ireland went public with its frustrations. Why? There must be an adequate and clear explanation why the Department of Health criticised the decision of nursing homes to introduce a ban on visitors on 4 March. The Department said then that Nursing Homes Ireland was moving too quickly, but it is clear that was wrong, and the nursing homes were ahead of the system. Why did this happen when the World Health Organization was urging, almost begging, European Governments to move and to do so faster? Will the Government clarify the delays on the On Call For Ireland initiative, which has been very successful with health professionals responding to it in huge numbers. However, this time last week, only 1,300 applicants were processed through the system from a pool of 73,000, at a time when nursing homes in particular are crying out for staff as they are unable to fill rosters. Given the magnitude of what is unfolding in nursing homes throughout the country and other residential and congregated settings, we need clear and precise answers to these questions.

I will make some suggestions on what should be done for nursing homes and I would like the Taoiseach's response. Each acute hospital should be assigned the job of monitoring nursing homes and congregated settings in its catchment area and be fully resourced to allow for rapid local responses. The focus of the On Call For Ireland programme should be shifted to nursing homes and the process fast-tracked to ensure that they have the necessary staff. The HSE should use the spare and very expensive capacity in private hospitals to alleviate the pressure in our nursing homes where necessary. We should also make use of the community assessment hubs for this purpose. The supply of personal protective equipment should be accelerated to nursing homes and other residential settings from today. If we do these things now, and assess them and measure them, we have a chance to turn the tide of the emergency in our nursing homes and stand a better chance of saving lives. This is the very least that we owe to our elderly citizens and their families. As the Taoiseach has accepted, we have a particular duty to protect them and vulnerable groups in our society.

See this speech in context