Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Tánaiste said he does not know the facts. I am giving him the facts. I did not stand up here to make things up. I have talked to the director of nursing in the nursing home. They have one care assistant and one nurse to try to run that nursing home. These are the facts. Whether the Tánaiste wants to check it somewhere else, that is fine. I do not go telling the Tánaiste something that is not accurate, however.

Does he think it is acceptable that the HSE promised staff this morning and they did not come? Does he think it is acceptable that over the past number of days when the HSE was contacted, it said not to panic and get agency staff? The dogs on the street know agency staff are not available. If I give the Tánaiste the details after Leaders' Questions, will he personally intervene in this case? Every evening when we look at the figures, we look at the number of people in hospitals. We are now looking at 22 or 23 more people being sent to hospital because of a lack of staff, staff the HSE said it would send. The numbers are going up in the hospitals because the HSE said it would help out the nursing homes when they hit problems but it is not adhering to that.

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