Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am going to ask some questions and then hand over to Deputy McNamara, with five minutes per session. I said this earlier to the Taoiseach, but it has to be said again. Regarding testing and the testing regime, we are getting fed a load of BS, as has been mentioned by other Members across the board. I think we are because I know of cases - and I have not looked for these - in the nursing homes tested on the very first day the nursing home blitz was done, when the Army went into nursing homes and did the testing, and yet people still have not got results. I know of at least 20 people, from one nursing home, who have not got results.

Those cases may be within the 10%, and perhaps that is why this has occurred. If that is the case, it is very worrying because that is a big number. That is the problem we have. I attend the HSE briefings and meetings. We hear all of the stuff where we are told that 15,000 tests a day are being done, that there is huge capacity and we can do 15,000 tests a day. There are not 15,000 tests a day being done, however. Why does the HSE just not tell us what is happening, instead of feeding us lines all the time that there is great progress and that everything is being done? We know it is not.

Sometimes, as politicians, we only ever hear about the bad stuff because that is what we end up having to deal with. In social welfare, for instance, we do not hear about the 90% of people who get payments in time, but we always get the people who do not get them. Perhaps we do have a skewed view, therefore, on how things are working because we only ever hear about the trouble. It is worrying for me, however, when there is no acknowledgement of it and that is very difficult.

That was one of the things I wanted to ask about, but I really want to talk about another matter. I know the Minister is in a difficult situation during this crisis, but we are going to have another crisis coming up very quickly regarding our hospitals as they start to reopen and deliver services. Outpatient clinics, and similar services, are only going to be fit to see about a third of the people they were seeing prior to this crisis. Our waiting lists are just going to get longer and longer. Right away, therefore, we must have discussions about seeing people on Saturdays, working from 7 a.m. or 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. or something like that. We will not get the level of appointments we had prior to this situation, but it is going to be a major and serious problem to stop our waiting lists going through the roof. Will the money be made available and will hospitals be able to take those actions so as to be able to deal with waiting lists in future?

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