Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I need to talk to the Minister again about nursing homes. I asked him on the last occasion when I was in the House for questions to open up the nursing homes to family members so they can visit their elderly parents or relatives in a controlled fashion. The situation is becoming clearer. The worst aspect of the whole pandemic was that elderly people, after having spent all their lives working for their families, working for their communities and working for our country, had to die alone, with nobody holding their hand or able to talk to them for a few minutes. I think that was the saddest and the worst part of the whole virus. I am asking the Minister to open up the nursing homes to allow relatives to visit in a controlled fashion and to give them access. I know of elderly people who are asking their daughters and their sons, "Why are you not coming to visit me?" I ask the Minister this again.

With regard to Cahersiveen and the refugee and asylum centre that was opened there, it has become clearer that the HSE did not give the approval for this centre. Is the Minister satisfied that the well-being of the people of Cahersiveen and of the residents is not being compromised? I ask him to please check it out and make sure. I ask him again to move those people out of there. They want to get out of there themselves and the people of Cahersiveen are not happy, so I ask the Minister again to do that.

On testing, which Deputy Naughten raised earlier, it is clear that the testing being done is taking too long and there are too many delays.

It is well over 20 days before some people get notified. This is not satisfactory. One cannot have efficient contact tracing when it has been going on for that long. The Minister needs to address this.

I ask the Minister, and I also asked the Taoiseach today, to reduce the distancing requirement from 2 m to 1 m. We will not kick start our economy or get our local economies going again if we do not do this. The World Health Organization, WHO, has suggested that 1 m will do. Why do we have to maintain the 2 m? We need to give hotels, pubs and the hospitality industry in Kerry a chance to get going. Spain is opening up for tourism on 1 July and if we do not allow our industry to open their doors on 29 June they will clean this country out. People who have given their lives and their fortunes and who put the whole of their efforts into the tourism industry will not get going this year. The Minister for Health is a member of the Government and is a very important part of the Cabinet. I ask the Minister to ensure the wellbeing of those people who gave so much to tourism in Kerry and around the country, including west Cork and Clare and all the other places. This is our one chance to open up tourism for domestic holiday makers because they have only those six or seven weeks. After 15 August families will be going home to get ready to go back to school. If Spain is opening up, and we are all under the one sky, then why can we not help our people and allow them to open their doors to get economic activity going? We need income and we need the benefit of the income from these places to trigger and kick start our economy. I appeal to the Minister as a member of the Government to do his best to ensure this. If the WHO has said that 1 m will do, why do we have to have a 2 m distance? That is my question. I am eating into Deputy Collins's time. I thank the Minister.

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