Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will also wish to raise the issue of testing and tracing. On Friday, a child at a school in County Carlow was diagnosed with Covid-19. The pod, of course, was sent home straight away and the school showed excellent compliance. The school, however, rang the HSE on the Friday which immediately referred it to a Dublin number. The person at the Dublin number rang back and said no nurses were available. On Saturday and Sunday, again, they contacted the public health team and on Sunday evening they had to contact the local GP. They were tested on Monday and told that there could be five-day delay for the results. I worry about this because it is a school but there is another case about which I am extremely worried. Again, on Friday, a lady in County Carlow and her baby were diagnosed with Covid-19. She was asked to give her contact list, which she gave to the HSE that day. On Monday she rang me with the list and I contacted the HSE. Today, six days on from her diagnosis, the people on her list are only being tested. I worry people are being asked to give their lists. The contact tracing list is not going to work. There is such confusion. Perhaps the Taoiseach will check on this matter for me to see if it can be handled better.

See this speech in context