Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

One thousand people in nursing homes have died from Covid-19. That is roughly half the number of people who have died from Covid-19 in this State. That figure far exceeds the proportion of people who have died in nursing homes internationally. According to the World Health Organization, approximately 25% of Covid deaths internationally have occurred in nursing homes. In this country, the people most vulnerable to the illness were left most exposed. After the first wave of the virus passed through the nursing homes, we in Aontú called for the Government to investigate what happened in these homes. In large part, we wanted to ensure this would not happen again. Unfortunately, however, the Government refused to do this.

On 19 October last, as the second wave started to pass through nursing homes, a case was detected in the Nightingale Nursing Home in Galway. These were the first cases detected. Over the next days, two staff members were left to care for all the residents of the nursing home, which begged the HSE for help. On 22 October, "Today with Claire Byrne" broke the story of a nursing home in Galway where the majority of staff and residents had tested positive for Covid-19 being left without the necessary assistance by the HSE. I raised this matter in the House on the same day to see whether the Government would do anything to ensure the nursing home received the assistance it needed. In the middle of my contribution, the Minister for Health accused me of lying. He stated: "That is a flat-out lie." His statement did not just call into question my credibility, which is neither here nor there, but also that of the doctor who had raised the concerns and the researchers and producers of the "Today with Claire Byrne" programme.

My office submitted a freedom of information, FOI, request to the Minister's office. I now have my hands on a copy of an email sent to the Minister shortly before the matter was raised. The documents paint a shocking and bleak picture with regard to the communication standards within the HSE. The email, from the office of the CEO of the HSE, Mr. Paul Reid, stated that the HSE had been trying to source staff to support the nursing home since the Monday of the week in question but that, despite contacting all the agencies the previous day, it had been unable to source any agency nursing staff.

Six months after the first wave of coronavirus swept through the nursing homes, and after hundreds of deaths had occurred in those homes calls from parties such as Aontú for an investigation into what had happened during the first wave, we know from the lack of communication within the HSE that it was no further along in October in dealing with the emergency in nursing homes. That is a shocking indictment of what is happening in the HSE. My worry is that it is very likely there will be another wave of Covid-19 before the vaccines are rolled out and also very likely that it will affect nursing homes. I have no confidence, eight months after coronavirus first emerged in this State and after two waves of the virus, that the HSE is better prepared to ensure the necessary staff can be provided in the case of an emergency in a nursing home to ensure an outbreak of Covid can be tackled as quickly as possible.

Given that the Minister received this email from the HSE in the early afternoon of 22 October, I ask him to apologise to the House and to correct the record to ensure the integrity of the doctor in question and the integrity of the researchers for the radio show in question is upheld. I ask him to ensure the truth of what happened in the Nightingale Nursing Home is recorded in the Official Report. Everything I said in that debate was true and the Department of Health knew that at the time. It is shocking that these details about nursing homes have emerged and that information travels faster from a nursing home to a doctor, a radio show, a Deputy and the Minister responsible than it does within the HSE. Some of the details in the response I received to the FOI request show that the Minister complained about this and that it took a month for the HSE to respond to him.

It took one month for the HSE to respond to him. In another report, a staff member of the HSE sent an email two days after the outbreak saying that he thought that the outbreak happened in a nursing home in Galway.

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