Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

On 3 November I asked a parliamentary question on the need for the establishment of a co-ordinated response team to ensure a consistent approach to Covid outbreaks, but when I received a reply on 21 December in advance of the current surge in infections, the HSE was silent on its establishment. In the first week of January, there were 158 outbreaks in our hospitals. Last week, we had a further 37 new outbreaks. Our hospitals should be about making people better, not about picking up a virus that could be deadly.

The Tánaiste will recall that as a result of my persistent highlighting of the Covid infection problems in our meat plants during the first wave of infection, a national outbreak control team was put in place to ensure we would have a consistent national approach to managing Covid outbreaks in those facilities. Regular testing of all staff is now taking place in our meat plants. Surely if we can do this in the meat plants, we should be able to do it for patients, front-line staff and those who will, sadly, need our hospitals over the weeks and months to come.

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