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

I thank the Deputy for raising this very serious matter. I appreciate fully the concerns expressed following the reports in local media. I will ask the Department of Health and the HSE for full clarity on this, although I believe they have been in touch with the Deputy. I will ask them to contact the Deputy directly about some of the specifics in these matters. The HSE has stated that under no circumstances are Covid-positive healthcare workers accommodated in hotels by the authorities. The HSE is very categorical in its statement that it does not do it. That, however, runs contrary to the story in the local media.

Up to 3,000 staff per week are availing of the HSE temporary accommodation programme. This programme is available to healthcare workers who are currently living in shared accommodation with other health service workers; work in a Covid-positive or potentially Covid-positive environment and may have a person in the high-risk categories vulnerable to infection in a home setting and therefore cannot return to the home setting between shifts; live with a person who has been instructed to self-quarantine; or are required to work longer than usual shifts or overtime and would therefore not have time to return home between shifts. Staff who are Covid-positive or who need to self-isolate cannot and will not be accommodated under this service.

Where a staff member tests positive, he or she would be referred to the Citywest self-isolation facility by a medical doctor. The Deputy indicates that in a certain case the person was not referred. If we can have the details, I will certainly follow through on that. There is a need to reconcile the story as published by local media and the very categorical position that has been articulated by the HSE. I will follow that up.

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