Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The only conclusion I can come to is that the delays I have outlined to the Minister are being used to wallpaper over the gross system failures, particularly in contact tracing. We have been informed as public representatives by the HSE that people are being given results within a day of their return from the laboratory and those who are positive are being contacted directly by a health professional.

This is not happening and negative results are being long-fingered for days and possibly weeks. In fact, the system is so bad that employers are being directly provided with a list of test results and they are the ones informing employees as to whether they are positive or negative for Covid-19. Will the Minister now confirm that medical data are being shared with employers before employees and explain to me why this is happening? Can I also say to the Minister that, if he thinks the initial communication of test results is bad, the follow-up contact tracing is, at best, intermittent and from my experience is failing fundamentally.

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