Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

These sessions work very well. Many questions are asked and many answers are provided. I hope the Minister will answer all the questions I have for him today.

In his opening comments he correctly praised the Irish people for all they have done to flatten the curve and control the virus. The problem lies elsewhere. Unfortunately, the side of the deal which involves having a testing and tracing system in place with a fast turnaround of the tests at the scale required has not been kept. All we can do is keep our fingers crossed that by next Monday the long-promised arrangements and end-to-end tracing at that scale and in a timely manner will be achieved. I hope that will be the case.

It has been very frustrating to try to get answers from the HSE and elsewhere on what is happening on testing and tracing. There is no reason for the secrecy. It is essential for the system to be transparent if people are to have confidence in it and know their sacrifices are being repaid. As such, will the Minister consider requesting that all of the data behind the figures on testing and tracing be made open source? In my view, there is no reason why that cannot be done. Journalists and Deputies have tried to get to the bottom of some of the answers we receive and are always told that the information is not to hand. Why are all of the data not made open source such that everybody can view and interrogate them?

Last weekend, Paul Reid stated that we need to spend €1 billion per year on PPE. That is a staggering figure - €250 million per quarter. It clearly sets out the timescale in question and the scale of what is required. The implications of the figure are enormous for the wider economy as well as the health budget. Will the Minister consider establishing a group to see how much of that PPE can be sourced locally? The capacity may not yet exist.

Why are we not looking at bringing all interests on board, SMEs and all industry interests to see whether we can start producing that here, not only to do it in a more cost-effective way but to have confidence in supply? Can the Minister set up a group to consider that and to establish whether we can source it domestically?

The third area concerns private hospitals. I note the points that have been made earlier and the fact that the Minister is talking about a roadmap for opening up the hospitals to non-Covid 19 cases. That should absolutely happen as quickly as possible. Can the Minister give an assurance that there will be a single list used for inpatient, outpatient and diagnostics in such a scenario? I agree with what the Minister is saying. It is very much in line with the Sláintecare principles that we should have a single-tier service that does not discriminate against people on the basis of ability to pay. Will the Minister give a guarantee that it will be done in that way? We should be able to get through lots of the backlog by scheduling that properly. Even in the awful event that there might be a second wave, it should still be possible to balance that. In that regard, given the way the people have co-operated on this huge addition in capacity, has the Minister given consideration to potentially not going back on that, that is, to keeping all of that capacity within the public service and jumping a couple of steps ahead in the implementation of Sláintecare? Has he given considerations to or had discussions on that? I really think he needs to do that.

I welcome the fact that the Minister will meet disability service providers within the next few days. While the funding being made available on an emergency basis is welcome, there is a limit on it of €100,000 per organisation. The National Council for the Blind of Ireland, NCBI, for example, is losing approximately €3 million through not being able to fundraise. It is a huge organisation that caters for approximately 8,000 people. It does not make sense and is not fair to have that kind of cap for some of those very large organisations. Will the Minister revisit that issue?

On the opening up of some sporting facilities from next week, Tennis Ireland is advising that people aged over 70 may not play tennis and there are many over 70s who cannot wait to get back onto the tennis court. Can the Minister clarify the guidance on that? The same applies to other sports such as golf. It would be helpful to have clarification on that.

Childcare is a major issue. The collapse of the scheme was absolutely predictable. Lots of people said from the start that it would never work, that childcare workers could not be sent into people's homes without all of the necessary regulations, safeguards and protection. My colleague, Deputy Whitmore, talked about the possibility of using public buildings. We have a network of schools in every area of the country, spacious buildings, covered by insurance, with play areas and all that kind of thing. Has the Minister given consideration to bringing together all of the interests there, including teachers' unions, childcare workers, SNAs and other interests, to see whether something can be done in schools? That is happening in the UK, for example. All children of front-line workers and children with special needs are being cared for in schools. What consideration, if any, has been given to that? Would the Minister consider bringing those representatives together while of course following the advice of the Chief Medical Officer?

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