Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am glad the Minister of State referred to PPE. It is still my view that all SNAs should be provided with the medical-grade masks mentioned by the Minister of State. For the vast majority of SNAs, the instances in which they will be moving to within 2 m of children or outside it occur very frequently throughout the day. It is the easiest and most sensible thing to do.

The problem with the Medmark Occupational Healthcare process and the appeal, and I understand that very few have been successful on appeal, is that they are related to the same criteria and the same categorisation. Very high risk is a very high threshold. High risk is a broad category ranging from mild asthma to leukemia, liver failure and other similar conditions. The fact that somebody gets a review does not necessarily mean that it takes an overall view of this individual member of staff and says it would probably be better, in the circumstances, if the person was at home. It only refers to whether the person has one of the conditions that qualifies the person as very high risk. Ultimately, it does not change matters.

When Dr. Ronan Glynn was before the Covid committee he told me that regardless of the categorisation by Medmark Occupational Healthcare, each person must be treated as an individual with his or her own specific set of circumstances.

We need a bespoke approach in the minority of cases where the Medmark process proves to be too blunt and people are at the higher end of high risk but do not qualify for very high risk.

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