Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am scheduled to meet with the Irish Dental Association tomorrow afternoon. As Deputy Feighan has said, guidance has been provided. Obviously we must follow public health advice but we want to have a conversation with the association, as we do with other sectors, with regard to how dentists operate in the new normal, at the appropriate time. I will not pre-empt that meeting but my officials and I will meet with the association representatives tomorrow.

On capital projects, we will be guided on our construction projects by NPHET in the same way as the rest of the construction sector. I have no plans to alter or pull back capital projects that are under way. They will recommence at the appropriate time from a public health and safety perspective.

Deputy Feighan's point on PPE is entirely right. The fact this virus will be with us for far longer than perhaps many people would have expected means we need to continue to seek more PPE. Ireland is doing relatively well in that regard when compared with others, but one can never have enough PPE. The website gov.ie/covidsuppliesis the best way for people to submit their application and have it assessed. That is a whole-of-government effort as well.

With regard to private patients in private hospitals, we have offered guidance to the HSE about the obligation to continuity of care. If a doctor is seeing a patient, there is an obligation to continuity of care and, if it cannot be provided, for that patient to be transferred. I will send a note to the Deputy on that.

The Deputy is entirely correct on non-Covid care. I have spoken to Deputies Butler and Stephen Donnelly about this in earlier exchanges. We are finalising our non-Covid care plan. We are starting a major public awareness campaign, and Members may have seen some of it today. It will ramp up next week, especially around cancer care. The campaign will very much get the message out that GPs want to hear from people if they are sick. Please do not ignore a symptom and do not delay in contacting GPs. There is capacity in the Irish health services and a safe way of looking after people who are sick from illnesses that are not Covid, as well as looking after those patients who have Covid-19.

On the issue of pharmaceutical companies, the long and proud relationship this country has, including economic and social ties, with the United States is a two-way street and a two-way relationship. Many Irish companies create jobs in the United States and there are many excellent United States multinationals creating jobs here. We are engaging with all industry here, including multinationals, through IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland in the roles they might be able to play in providing vital equipment and in making sure Ireland is promoted as a location for research as we continue to work our way through this pandemic.

I will take the opportunity given to me by Deputy Feighan to pay tribute to the staff working in our nursing homes. Just because there is an outbreak in a nursing home does not mean it is a sign of failure on the part of staff. There are many incredible people working night and day in our nursing homes, and many nursing homes might have an outbreak of Covid-19 in the same way a family home might. They are dealing with it really well and working in very difficult circumstances with vulnerable people. Many of them, public and private, are doing extraordinarily good work.

I am sure that when this pandemic is over, there will be many lessons to learn and this Oireachtas will seek with us to learn them. Looking objectively at what we are doing in our nursing home sector and compares it with many other countries, I believe that Ireland has been quite proactive. Providing PPE to private nursing homes is not the norm in many other countries. Redeploying staff from the public health service to private nursing homes is also not the norm in many other countries, nor is reaching an agreement with home care workers whereby we now have 145 home care workers going in to work in long-term residential care settings. I thank them for that. Testing asymptomatic residents and staff across our nursing home sector is not the norm and I am not sure there are many countries doing that at all. We have also put in place a financial assistance scheme with €4 million ready to pay out to private nursing homes, for which to date we have 277 applications processed. We have put a lot of supports in place and we will continue to support the sector.

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