Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

In the House yesterday, the Taoiseach, speaking about nursing homes, told us we had learned from the first phase of the pandemic. We find this morning that in my constituency, 90% of the residents and staff in a nursing home have now tested positive for Covid-19. A nursing home has been run for the past three days by a cook and two other staff, which is totally unacceptable. I know the Tánaiste does not know the detail of the case but I have had the opportunity to provide the Minister for Health with the information this morning. In fairness to him, he left the Chamber immediately after getting the information in order to act on it. Will the Tánaiste use his good offices to intervene in the case? We do not want to see a repeat of this in nursing homes across the country. I urge the Government to put a panel of staff in place who can go into nursing homes in such scenarios to immediately deal with crises such as the one we now face in my constituency. This would ensure the case would not be repeated and that residents would not be left in such a deplorable condition as they are now.

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