Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for that clarification and for raising the matter. I will meet the expert panel this afternoon. It was an absolute game-changer. We have the support of Nursing Homes Ireland. There are 575 nursing homes and they are all buying into this. We received short, medium and long-term recommendations and we took all 86 of them on board. The short-term recommendations have been implemented. They relate to infection prevention and control, staffing levels and avoiding the cross-over of staff between nursing homes to prevent Covid. We are currently working towards implementing the medium-term recommendations and the long-term recommendations are being costed. The work that has happened in nursing homes in the past few weeks has been phenomenal. There have not been any Covid cases in nursing homes in the past three weeks. From next Monday, 4 May, residents will be able to receive four visits in their nursing home, which is very positive.

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