Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I was quite amazed earlier when the Minster said that it is not the norm to look after private nursing homes or to provide them with PPE. My thought immediately was that I do not think it is the norm also to have 80% of nursing homes in private hands. That statement is a bit glib, to be quite honest, as is the whole plan and roadmap to come out of the lockdown as it relates to our senior citizens.

Some 740 senior citizens have died. That is a startling figure. The figures given to us this morning show that 118 of them were hospitalised. That is less than 16% but it is an increase on the previous figure we had. Has new guidance been given to nursing homes on bringing patients to a hospital care centre? I note the percentage of those dying with Covid-19 who are in residential care has increased from 58% to 62%. That is a worrying figure and I would like the Minister to comment on it. I am not reassured that the level of care in nursing homes and the guidance being given to them are adequate in every centre or case.

My next question is on workplace clusters. When I asked last week about Liffey Meats in Ballyjamesduff I was told that the Health Protection Surveillance Centre was to investigate. There have been six workplace clusters in meat factories. Yesterday, when I asked what was being done about this, the answer I was given at the HSE briefing was that the sector is important to society. I want to highlight that so too are the workers in this sector. What is being done to ensure these clusters do not develop into the type of disaster we are seeing unfold in the United States?

I want to ask about the clusters in direct provision, specifically the cluster in Cahersiveen which has been well publicised on RTÉ. Cahersiveen residents are now in lockdown and have no contact with the outside world. There are 26 cases in the centre, five of which are among staff. What are we doing to intervene in that centre?

I ask the Minister to comment on the issue of masking. The National Bus and Rail Union has written to the Minister and all Members asking that we ensure that masking becomes the social norm when we open up public transport. The idea of "I protect you and you protect me" has to be enforced in society. However, we have to supply the masks which cost anything up to €2.50 in pharmacies. We cannot expect citizens to fork out that money when everyone is broke. We need to supply millions of masks at public transport hubs. What is the Minister's comment on that?

See this speech in context