Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

Before last week's recess, I raised my concerns with the Taoiseach in relation to putting in place a robust contact tracing system. We had seen a spectacular failure the previous weekend, when thousands of people who tested positive had to trace their own contracts. We cannot see a repeat of that. When I raised this at Leaders' Questions, I was told that there would be 90 people recruited each week and up to 800 overall would be recruited on the contact tracing side. We were looking for a gold standard in relation to this. It is absolutely vital. Can the Tánaiste give us an absolute commitment that this will be in place before the level 5 restrictions end?

In addition to the testing and contact tracing we know we have to mitigate risks. Meat plants are a risk and work practices are part of that. What is happening in relation to that? Direct provision centres are a known risk and if there was a will, something could be done about that. Is there such a will?

International travel is a known risk. Dr. Holohan was before the transport committee this week and he said that movement of populations around areas with high incidences of the disease, particularly in Europe and North America, are not safe. He said the vast majority of countries are red and getting redder. We are due to adopt the EU traffic light system for international travel this Sunday. The Minister, Deputy Ryan, told us on 4 October that a senior cross-departmental group was working on a report and on a plan and that that report would be available on 10 November. Are the report and plan still due on that date?

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