Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

This motion and the preceding one deal with far-reaching laws that restrict people's liberty and freedoms in many ways. They would be totally inappropriate in normal times but are being introduced for very good reason because we are not living in normal times. These are very different times that nobody expected. Where we have legislation of this nature, it is important that it be reviewed as regularly as possible to ensure we learn from what is happening in communities and from people's lived experiences. Other Deputies have made the same point.

One of the things that has come clearly into focus in all this is the difficulties that exist within our health service under normal circumstances. The reality is that we have a health service that is not fit for purpose in a time of crisis. When Covid-19 infection numbers begin to rise, people live in huge fear that our whole hospital system will be overwhelmed. That is understandable when one considers the very tight capacity in the service. In normal circumstances, people who need a hip replacement or cataract removal, for instance, are waiting years to see a consultant. I spoke to somebody recently whose orthopaedic consultancy referral letter for Sligo University Hospital was met with the response that there is a 40-month waiting list to see the consultant. That delay is not because of the Covid crisis but is in the normal course of things. We have a huge crisis in our health service and the pandemic has magnified it and brought it much more into focus and to our attention. We have a lot of work to do to ensure we build capacity as quickly as possible and learn from the lessons thus far. To that end, we need to review this legislation much sooner than June next year. We should be reviewing it at least every three months so that we have a clear sense of where we are going and what we are doing.

Many of the problems in the health system in recent times have been down to issues around the capacity of the service. It was necessary to act quickly to put in tracking, tracing and testing processes. Many Deputies have referred to a particular issue in this regard and I ask the Minister to take note of it. I, too, have been contacted by people who have encountered serious problems in regard to testing and how the system is working. Earlier this week, I was contacted by a person in south Leitrim who had a test performed at home by ambulance service staff but, ten days later, has still not received the result. Many others are in the same situation. I have spoken to a number of people who tested positive for Covid and self-isolated but their family members, living in the same house, had to wait several days for a test and were still awaiting the result four or five days later. That is happening all over the place and it undermines people's confidence in the system and in the response to the increasing infection rates.

There are also huge problems with the tracing element. The fact that it all fell down last weekend in terms of the numbers of infections is a reflection of that. We know there are staff in some sectors of the HSE who have been deployed to tracing work. The Minister and his colleagues in government should look at whether personnel in other sectors of the public service who, because of Covid, may not be working to the same levels they would be in normal times can be redeployed to ensure there are enough staff for tracing. The lack of personnel in this area is one of the really serious problems we are facing.

I want to refer to the situation in nursing homes, which has been brought into focus today because of the situation in a facility in County Galway. Back in April, I conducted a small survey in my own constituency by way of telephone calls to a number of nursing homes to see how they were getting on. At that time, personal protective equipment, PPE, was one of the main concerns people were raising. My constituency includes a small part of north Roscommon, which is in community healthcare organisation, CHO, 2, with the remainder of the constituency in CHO 1. Of the nursing homes I contacted, most in CHO 1 reported a positive experience. The HSE had contacted them, they were getting PPE supplies and they were, overall, fairly satisfied with the response. A few had problems, including a couple of nursing homes which had Covid cases, but they were being dealt with adequately. The nursing homes in CHO 2, which covers the Galway region, were much more problematic, with management reporting that they had not been contacted by the HSE at all, they were very disappointed with the level of support they were being given and they had real and serious issues. Perhaps that is being reflected now in the case that was reported today. I hope that is not the case and that the level of support was uniform across the State but it certainly was not my experience. I spoke to 12 or 14 nursing homes across my constituency in April. While the majority were satisfied with the response, all had issues around staffing, including where they were going to get staff and having to depend on agency staffing.

There are lessons we need to learn today from what has gone before. In two or three months, when we are on the other side of Christmas, there will be other lessons to learn. That is why it is important that this legislation is reviewed regularly in order to ensure we learn those lessons and apply them as we need to.

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