Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I take the Deputy’s point, which is well made, but he has to remember we are living in unprecedented times. We are learning as we go along. When the Covid pandemic hit in March and April, all of our capacity was put into the acute hospital sector because that is what we had learned from seeing what was happening in Europe. Unfortunately, the pandemic bore down hardest on our older generation. We lost 985 people in our nursing home system, and 54% of all those who have died to date were lost in the nursing home sector.

A huge amount of work is being done. Testing, tracing and isolating are the bywords of what we have to face going forward. Even though the Deputy says there is no detail, the detail will follow. I know, for example, that we are looking to double the amount of home care supports for our older generation, and we are looking at rehab in the home and at re-enablement in the home to protect our older generation and to keep them out of the acute hospital setting. While there are many challenges ahead, I believe we have a fantastic front-line service which is well up for the challenge.

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