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

The Taoiseach acknowledged that the systematic approach within nursing homes is working. When I saw the outbreak, for example, in Naas with which I am very familiar, more than 80 staff were out either due to being directly affected by Covid itself or having to self-isolate. That has a monumental impact on the ability of the hospital to operate. The same would have been the case in Letterkenny and Limerick. It struck me that it was an obvious setting to carry out routine testing in the same way that it is carried out in nursing homes. There are probably other settings where the spare capacity could be used in a preventative way as a means of keeping the numbers low. That is going to be the object of the exercise. The public have to play their role and they will pay a great deal of attention to the guidance they are given, but there is a role for the State, and it is that systematic preventative role. I am looking to see what is being done in that regard. I do think people see international travel as a big risk.

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