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

I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue given the concerns locally. Protecting those living in direct provision accommodation centres from any Covid-19 outbreak has been an absolute priority of Government. A comprehensive programme of serial Covid-19 testing by the HSE has been completed across 66 accommodation centres. My understanding is about 3,300 tests have been undertaken in direct provision centres and about 18 positive tests have emerged from that testing programme. That is a positivity rate of 0.53% among residents and staff. I will endeavour to bring clarity to the points the Deputy raised in the context of local media highlighting these issues. The transfer of residents from Dublin to Dundalk has created some degree of confusion locally.

As the Deputy knows, there are two international protection accommodation services facilities in Dundalk, Carroll Village and the Carnbeg re-accommodation facility. Carroll Village independent living is a block of apartment-style independent living units housing mostly family groups. The Department of Justice and Equality has confirmed there has been no large-scale transfer of residents either in or out of this centre in recent months. Routine testing as part of the Covid-19 serial testing programme was completed recently at Carroll Village. As I said, this was one of the public health measures put in place by the HSE and the Department of Justice and Equality to safeguard residents and staff in direct provision centres since the beginning of this pandemic. The HSE's investigation into the specific incident the Deputy highlighted found there was an isolated logistics issue whereby swabs did not reach the laboratory within the required timeframe. As the swabs had expired, they had to be retaken in line with standard practice. The HSE has apologised for the inconvenience this caused to the residents concerned and it conducted on-site follow-up testing on Friday, 2 October to complete this serial testing and all results have now been communicated at this point.

The Carnbeg Hotel, which opened earlier this year, is used as emergency, temporary accommodation for people who willingly left their accommodation centre at the start of the pandemic and are now seeking to be re-accommodated by the International Protection Accommodation Service, IPAS.

To be clear, the Departments of Justice and Equality and Education have confirmed the Carnbeg Hotel was not affected by the retaking of tests in recent days. This facility is used for 14-day quarantine prior to re-accommodation in a dedicated accommodation centre. It has a regular turnover of temporary residents. These residents had been living in private accommodation located throughout the country prior to requesting re-accommodation from the Department. That is the situation as of now.

See this speech in context