Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I join colleagues in expressing my condolences to the families of all of those who have lost loved ones as a result of Covid-19 since we last met in this House. In particular, I join my colleague from the constituency of Louth, Deputy Ó Murchú, in extending my sympathies to the families of those who have lost their lives in Dealgan House Nursing Home. I would appreciate if the Minister shared with his colleagues in the Louth and Meath East Dáil constituencies his views and the views he receives from the HSE when he makes inquiries about this matter. That would be very useful. I am happy to work with Deputy Ó Murchú and others to try to resolve some of those issues in the public interest, in the interests of those who have lost loved ones and in the interest of transparency.

That is the next issue I wish to raise with the Minister. First, I ask the Minister to publish the letters written to him and his Department by the HSE chairman and chief executive on 19 and 21 April last. We in the Labour Party and my party leader, Deputy Kelly, understand that these letters point to issues relating to testing, the testing regime and wider governance issues. The Minister and Members will accept that, at present, this Parliament functions in a very restricted fashion. It is virtually toothless. Therefore, never has it been more important for Ministers and public officials to behave transparently and with absolute frankness and candour. The Minister has to front up and respond to Deputy Kelly's demand that these letters be published openly and made available. When does he intend to do that?

When Vicky Phelan speaks we all should listen. I listened intently to what she said on the "News at One" programme today. She urged anybody with symptoms that might be associated with cancer and other serious conditions to access the health service, make contact with their general practitioner and so forth. I add my voice to that call. I am worried, and other Members have expressed their anxieties here this afternoon, that while some health services are running, others are in what might be described as sleep mode. We have a roadmap to open hair salons and tattoo parlour services, for which I have little need, but no roadmap exists to reopen our health service. We are in danger of the non-Covid-19 and possibly avoidable deaths surpassing Covid-19 deaths. That should be a cause of great anxiety for everyone.

What is the position with the roadmap for reopening our health service? I want a roadmap to be made publicly available which will point out when full cancer services, critical care services across the sector, community services and others will be open. That will be very important. Will it be the Minister with responsibility for our health service who will ultimately make that decision with the HSE or will the decision be subcontracted out to NPHET? Can the Minister elaborate on his role in this regard? Is he in charge of making this decision or will it be subcontracted out to Dr. Holohan? Who makes the final call - the Minister with the HSE or NPHET?

I am troubled by the fact that we do not appear to have a publicly available roadmap for the reintroduction of full BreastCheck, cervical screening and bowel screening services. When will they fully return? Can the Minister let the House know the percentage of patients who were screened before the shutdown who have yet to receive their results from the screening programme? This is going to be important. As the Minister knows, every day matters when one is waiting for results from cancer screening. HPV screening was supposed to commence shortly. The Minister might tell the House when this critical system will be introduced and made available.

I wish to follow up on some of the remarks made earlier by Deputy Feighan about dental services. Like many colleagues in the House, I have been contacted by local dentists who are, by and large, private operators and who are very concerned about their situation at present. They are also concerned, and they provided me with on-the-ground reports, that the type of emergency services the HSE said would be available are not, in fact, available in all cases. I have had reports of cases in Drogheda and Dundalk where people have not been able to access those emergency services. The main concern is that as those dental issues become more problematic, we could have people referred to hospitals instead of being cared for in the community by our professional dentists. I will be interested to hear about the outcome of the Minister's meeting with the Irish Dental Association tomorrow.

I wish to raise two further points in concluding. One relates to face masks. Why does the Minister appear to be flip-flopping on the idea of face coverings? In Slovakia, a country of similar size to Ireland but with a very low number of Covid-19 deaths, people have been required to wear face coverings since the end of March. There might be no causal relationship but I believe we must take the precautionary principle and ensure that people are safe.

My view, based on evidence I have read that has been communicated in the public media, is that there is a very strong argument for very strong advice to emanate from the Government to encourage people, and potentially make it compulsory, to wear face coverings, particularly on public transport, in shops and so on.

As raised by Deputy O'Reilly, the position of section 39 organisations is dire. A perfect storm has emerged. Bearing in mind the funding cuts by the Minister's Department in the context of the 2020 HSE service plan, will the Minister restore the funding to the organisations and revoke the 1% cut, which is in effect a €20 million cut to the organisations? As Deputy O'Reilly appealed for, will the Minister set up a Covid-19 fund to ensure the organisations, which are doing critical work in our community, are properly resourced?

Deputy Leddin mentioned the app, contact tracing and the interaction between the North and the South. The Minister's position baffles me. Why did he decide not to include non-residents in the travel restrictions he introduced a number of weeks ago? There are major concerns in north Louth and other Border areas regarding this. We are all working really hard to abide by and comply with the public health restrictions on travel but there is nothing preventing somebody from the North, a non-resident, coming down here and spending as much time as he or she likes here without any intervention whatsoever by the authorities. I wrote to the Minister about this last Monday week. It is a serious issue. I have had reports of families from the North coming down south to north Louth to spend weekends with their families whereas there are grandparents in the Cooley area with grandchildren in Dublin whom they have not seen for weeks. It is deeply unfair. Will the Minister revise the position on this? I would be interested in hearing what he has to say.

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