Frank Feighan (Sligo-Leitrim, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue.

The Minister acknowledges the significant contribution of health and social care professionals to the Covid response, in particular, the urgent requirement for testing in the community services. I am aware that in the Department of Health, many of the various teams are still working on Covid.

The HSE has put a plan in place to stabilise the testing workforce to release staff back to their substantive roles. However, with the rising number of cases and the requirement for the HSE community services to respond to meet the evolving priorities, there is a fine balance to be struck between the competing priorities of responding to Covid and the restarting of services temporarily paused on the onset of Covid. I will bring the Deputy's forthright and helpful advice to the Minister when I meet him tomorrow.

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