Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I empathise with much of the Deputy's comments about the challenges that faced the nursing home sector at the outset of Covid-19. I do not believe it was adequately prepared at that time to cope with the pandemic. Much has been learned since. The expert panel has been set up by the previous Minister and I understand it should report within the next fortnight. It will be an important basis on which to evaluate policy in the next number of months. There is comprehensive testing in nursing homes now. In one nursing home, five people have the virus who are asymptomatic. That illustrates how even now, with the suppression of the virus, the challenges clearly still there in the sector.

On clinical governance, I will be guided by the report of the expert panel, however we have learned enough from the experience during the pandemic to accept that changes must take place around governance in the nursing home sector, particularly on the clinical side. Stronger clinical oversight will be required.

That is my view on that.

I am also very concerned about the case that has been raised of Mary Bartley Meehan. HIQA is the regulating authority for the nursing home sector and Ms Bartley Meehan is entitled, at the very least, to a report, and from what I have read of the case, it should be reviewed. I have sought from the Department of Health a further update on this particular case. It is very worrying indeed as to Ms Bartley Meehan’s own experiences when she visited, where she lost both her son, Adrian, and her husband. It is a very traumatic and shocking situation which deserves a comprehensive and full response for Mary Bartley Meehan herself and her family, and that should be done.

As to future preparation and preparedness for any resurgence in the virus, the testing exercise that is under way is something I take solace from in the sense that we desire the HSE and the public health authorities to be on top of this in the nursing home sector to ensure that it is not caught off guard as perhaps it was at the outset of the Covid-19 virus outbreak, which was an unprecedented global pandemic. At the beginning all concern was around the acute hospital side and the nursing home side received attention somewhat later.

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