Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy is wrong in his various assertions. In the first instance, I do not believe in the Deputy's zero-Covid approach. It is not viable in terms of our membership of the European Union, our relationship with the United Kingdom and the seamless interaction of people. We also have the Border between North and South and the fact we are not in charge of the jurisdiction public health wise in Northern Ireland. We have seen the overlap and impact there in terms of Covid-19.

The bottom line is that in tackling the second wave, we are one of the best-performing countries in Europe. The strategy that has been pursued has worked so far. It is not a matter of being in and out of lockdown. There have been two phases of very severe restrictions since the Covid-19 outbreak. The very first, as the Deputy knows, was in spring and it was very severe. The second, which ended recently, was less severe because we kept schools open. Contrary to the Deputy's comments, we also kept health services open unlike in the first phase. In the second phase, the non-Covid health services were kept open.

The second phase did not have anywhere near the same impact on hospitalisation, mortality or intensive care unit occupancy rates as the first phase. The evidence from a variety of sources, including the Central Statistics Office, NPHET and others confirms all of this. The second wave has been different. We have had the best performance globally in relation to mortality in the second wave through the various measures we introduced. That said, there can be no room for complacency.

In respect of public health, for example, in September the Minister committed to doubling the workforce in public health. There were about 254 people working in public health pre-Covid, and the Government has provided resources to double that number, and hiring has already started in relation to that. In terms of the consultant status, the Crowe Horwath report is there and the Government is acting on it. There are ongoing discussions between the Departments of Public Expenditure and Reform, and Health, but consultant posts will be created. The manner and framework through which all of that will happen is an important issue and there is much detail involved in that, which has to be worked out, but the resources are there. More than €4 billion has been put into the health service this year, which is a record figure - €2 billion for Covid, and €2 billion non-Covid - and quite extensive and significant.

On the issue of student nurses, again, it is not the same as the first phase. It is not the same at all. When the nursing degree programme was brought in in 2002 - I brought it in as Minister for Health - it was seen as a radical transformation of nurse education at the time, to put student nurses on the same par with other university students in terms of their degree and so forth and investment in facilities in all of our universities and institutes of technology. All of that happened. Negotiations and work are ongoing between the Minister for Health and the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, INMO, on a variety of issues in terms of trying to support student nurses in the current climate within the hospitals, particularly, for example, the application of the pandemic unemployment payment, PUP, to student nurses who understandably have lost the jobs that they would have had at weekends because of Covid restrictions. That has now been made available to student nurses, but crucially their clinical placements in fourth year and their internships must also be protected from an education perspective. That is something that is uppermost in terms of the HSE's objective in this situation.

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