Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Over the weekend, we heard about how the tracking and tracing system broke down and collapsed. I wish to briefly outline what that meant for me and my family. My wife is a secondary schoolteacher and last Thursday she was notified by the Covid app that she was a close contact of someone who had tested positive. The same day, her school notified her that a positive case in the school had been confirmed but after risk assessing the situation, she was not deemed to be a close contact. She was informed by the app that she would receive a telephone call within 24 hours from the HSE to indicate whether she was affected and if the close contact was correct or if it was the same case as the case in the school. Eight days later, she has still not received a phone call. My wife had to self-isolate due to the restrictions set out in the notification from the app. By Monday, she still had not been notified by the HSE. On the advice of the Covid officer in Leinster House, I took the decision not to travel up to Dublin but to err on the side of caution.

On Monday, I contacted the HSE and I was told that I would get a call back. On Tuesday, when I had still not heard anything I contacted the Minister's office and was told there was nothing he could do. My wife contacted her GP on Tuesday to arrange a test the following day and yesterday afternoon she got back the results indicating that she was negative. Under the close contact guidelines, she still had to quarantine for the full 14 days, but I could travel to Dublin. I immediately came up here yesterday evening. My wife feels that she has let her students and her school down but she has not. It is the Minister and the tracking and tracing system operated by the HSE that have let her students and her school down. They have also let the constituents of Cork North-Central down because I missed major debates, discussions and votes this week as I could not get an answer to a simple question that should have been answered within 24 hours. This was a disaster for me and my constituents, the people I represent. Eight days later, my wife, who had a negative test, is still at home self-isolating. How can that be acceptable? Sinn Féin has been calling for a proper system all summer. Deputies Mary Lou McDonald and David Cullinane have been outlining the problems with tracking and tracing and how we have to get it right because it is vital to tackling the Covid crisis. This is just not good enough.

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