Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

On the first point, we have taken the Deputy's question on board. There is an issue with comparing data that the HSE and Pobal have. We are looking at other data sources also because before jumping into a big piece of research there is quite a lot of information in different Departments and agencies. We are trying to see what we have got before we go on to that stage. As I said in my opening statement, when we are considering the impacts of Covid on people who are socially excluded, there are three areas we can examine. The first area is vaccine access. I believe we are quite good on that side with equity of access. Then there is the area of infection rates and mortality. There are questions to be asked there and perhaps research to be done at some stage on underlying health conditions and health inequalities that have fed up the line and caused higher mortality rates. Then there is the wider area of the impacts of the health restrictions. One can look at pretty much every sector of society in that regard, including education and disability services. It is quite broad but we are considering what we have got before we make the next step on it.

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