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

Does the Government realise the HSE's contact tracing system is just not working? While the HSE is trying to bamboozle us with its mean and median figures for positive and negative test results and figures for the performing of tests and contract tracing, giving eight different figures, the reality is that the disclosure of medical results to employers rather than employees was, I believe, to cover up the fact that the contact tracing system is just not working. I made this point in the House to the Minister for Health last Thursday. From my limited data, for about 2% of people tested, there are no test results. It is taking the HSE three weeks to inform people of the fact that their samples have been either damaged or lost, or that it has not been possible to read them. There are many instances in which people in receipt of the Covid-19 illness benefit for the maximum two weeks pending a Covid-19 test result have had to seek an extension of the payment because the results were not back or because they had to be retested. Will the Minister indicate how many have sought that extension?

Second, claimants who are asymptomatic Covid-19 positive, that is, those who are showing no sign of infection, are eligible to receive the Covid-19 illness benefit payment for up to 14 days. How many of these specific claimants are in payment for less than two weeks? The reason they are in payment for less than two weeks is that screening in the nursing homes and meat plants involved a wait of five to seven days, or 13 in one instance, before the communication of a result. The Minister might wonder why I am asking her this specific question. The reason is that, in the case of the person who had to wait 13 days for a positive result and who worked in a large nursing home in the east of the country, they had to self-isolate for one day before returning to work. Amazingly, the HSE still has no plan to retest the residents or employees in the nursing home in question.

How can we eradicate the Covid-19 illness benefit payments when such actions are being taken by the HSE?

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