Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

To answer the Deputy's direct question on the number of people in contact tracing, there are now no therapists or front-line community therapists working in contact tracing. They have all been redeployed. There is a current workforce of 736 in swabbing. Of those, 411 are redeployed staff. That combines both the therapists we are discussing and those with non-patient-facing roles. From memory, and I am open to correction, I received a report ten to 14 days ago that the number of therapy grades in swabbing was at 279, but I will revert to the Deputy with the most up-to-date figure on that.

I have engaged repeatedly with the HSE. We should remember that the HSE, to its credit, has created from a standing start one of the most comprehensive testing and tracing regimes anywhere in the western world. That required pulling in therapists. I agree with the Deputy, and the HSE is cognisant of getting the therapists back to their front-line roles as quickly as possible.

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