Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

I join with other Deputies in extending my deepest sympathies to the families and friends who have lost loved ones during this shocking crisis. The country reached a shocking milestone yesterday; more than 1,000 people have died from Covid-19 on the island of Ireland. I thank all the men and women who are on the front line. They are working beyond the call of duty and are putting their own health and lives at risk for the most vulnerable. We owe them an enormous debt of gratitude we should not forget when this crisis is over.

I acknowledge all of the work the Government has done over the last two months. The management of this crisis as it developed has been very difficult due to its enormity and the fact that we still do not know all of the different behavioural patterns of this particular virus. The role of the Opposition, however, is to propose solutions, to scrutinise the Government and to push it at all times to ensure better outcomes for the Irish people. The mortality rate in Ireland is shocking. It is the 12th worst on the planet. We also have one of the worst mortality rates in the world for those in nursing home settings. This is doubly shocking given the fact that we are an island nation and that we saw this crisis unfold in other countries and had time to prepare. We had a headstart in preparing. We also have a young and dispersed population. All of this would lead me to believe that we were in a better position to deal with this crisis.

It was wrong not to stop flights coming from the north of Italy at the start of this crisis. It was wrong to tell people who were returning from the north of Italy at that time to continue on as normal if they did not have symptoms. It was wrong not to risk-assess these people at the airports. One might say that I am speaking with hindsight and that this is history but that is not exactly the case. Right now, seasonal workers are landing in Ireland to pick fruit this summer. I raised this issue last week and the Chief Medical Officer said that it was not good public health policy to allow this in the middle of a pandemic. Statements from the Taoiseach's office that day varied from, in the morning, that these were essential workers and should come to, in the evening, that the Taoiseach shared the concerns of the Chief Medical Officer and that he was seeking an urgent review into this practice. It has since transpired that the Government actually lobbied the EU to allow the movement of these seasonal workers right across the EU. Does the Taoiseach agree with the Chief Medical Officer? Does he believe we should adhere to a policy of restricting people's movement? Will he make a change to that policy? We are still only providing leaflets at airports. Is it not time to have medical professionals in airports properly risk-assessing people entering the country?

I raise the issue of the nursing homes. Nursing homes are in absolute crisis. Dr. Marcus de Brun, who was appointed to the Irish Medical Council by the Minister for Health, said that these are "the biggest political blunders in the history of the Irish State", that nursing homes "have featured as something of an afterthought", and that the timeline of inaction with regard to nursing homes beggars belief. At the start of March, many nursing homes instituted restrictions on visitors. On 10 March, however, the Government said "socially restrictive actions around hospitals and nursing homes are not necessary at this moment in time". Many nursing homes around the country opened up the next day and remained open for visitors for the next three weeks before visiting being banned by Government. On 17 March the HSE directed that nursing homes promote good hand washing and put up information posters. The number of people dead internationally on that day was 7,500. In March many nursing homes sought blanket testing for residents.

On 4 April the Government promised blanket testing for staff and residents but that is only kicking in now and half of the nursing homes around the country still have not been tested in this way. The tests that are finally happening are revealing a shocking picture. There are now 1,944 confirmed cases of the virus in nursing homes throughout the country. This is 61% higher than the Government's figure on Monday. The scale of this differential shows how important testing is, both with regard to the treatment of residents and workers but also in understanding the depth of the crisis in nursing homes. On 19 March, Nursing Homes Ireland, NHI, wrote to the Minister for Health seeking an urgent meeting or conference call. However, two weeks later the Minister for Health, in response to a press statement sent out by NHI that it still had not met the Minister, said that he looked forward to meeting its representatives soon. On 4 April we were also promised that a financial support scheme would be available to nursing homes but incredibly, yesterday we found out that not one cent of that scheme has been spent in any nursing home in the country as of yet. Staff at nursing homes and their representatives have been excluded from the NPHET. Obviously we are in the jaws of a crisis and we need to focus all of our attention on fixing it but when this crisis subsides, for the sake of future health policy I ask the Taoiseach to commit to an investigation of how the nursing home sector was handled in this country.

There will be no lifting of the lockdown until we are testing the outer ripple of the virus as it goes through the population. Testing is key to lifting the lockdown, saving lives and easing the financial burden on this country but testing also remains in crisis. On 19 March, the Minister for Health said that we would reach 15,000 tests in a matter of just a few days. One month later and we are testing at a rate of one third of that particular objective. People have been waiting for weeks for the result of their tests. Many medics will say that a delayed test means delayed treatment which in turn means delayed outcomes for patients. I too have worked with a family who lost a loved one. It was two weeks before the test result for the deceased came back to that family so they were unable to bury their loved one for two weeks. We had to chase up the test result for that family to relieve their stress. The criteria for testing at that point in the crisis were narrowed. They were not narrowed for clinical reasons but for capacity reasons and they still have not been broadened out again. Many people with symptoms of Covid-19 today will not get a test and the testing of asymptomatic people who have been in contact with confirmed cases, which is the Holy Grail in terms of actually solving this crisis, is still not even on the horizon. I understand that for a long time, testing reagents were simply not available in the quantities needed. Yesterday, startlingly, we found out that the State now has the capacity to test 10,000 people per day but how many is it testing per day? It is testing 5,000 people. We have the capacity to carry out double the number of tests that we are currently doing. That is an incredible figure given that we know how important testing is and that the WHO is saying "test, test, test". Capacity is no longer a brake on testing. Government policy is a brake on testing at the moment, which is startling news. I ask the Taoiseach to commit to testing at capacity immediately.

Finally, hospital avoidance is a radical problem at this time. It is a significant threat to the health and the life of people. I heard of one hospital that sent out 60 invites to individuals for elective colonoscopies but only four people turned up. I have also heard of a number of people, including cancer patients, who have had their particular engagements cancelled. I ask the Taoiseach to do two things today. Will he commit to ensuring that cancer patients will not have any of their treatments cancelled in this State and to a public information campaign telling people who are in need of elective procedures not to avoid hospitals?

It is estimated that a good chunk of the excess of deaths occurring at the moment are not Covid-19 related but are related to significant hospital avoidance.

See this speech in context