Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

The HSE confirmed to me in recent days that approximately 750 people who caught the virus while in hospital have died. We know that 2,000 people who also died of Covid-19 in the State were nursing home residents. These are truly shocking statistics. When we add those two figures together, we learn that 56% of all the people who died of Covid in this State did so in either hospitals or nursing homes. A majority died in facilities that were either run by or regulated by the State. While many people were pointing the finger of judgment at pubs, masks and beaches, more than half of Covid deaths were among people in the care of the State.

We also know that where people died from Covid in a nursing home or in HSE care, these were very tragic situations. They were often situations where people had an injury or a fall and were presented to hospital for examination, caught Covid in that hospital, deteriorated quickly and, sadly, passed away. One of the most tragic aspects was that it was due to the shortage of staff in many nursing homes and hospitals. This led to difficulties with people finding out what was happening in nursing homes. At St. Mary's in the Phoenix Park, families only learned about outbreaks through news bulletins and, scandalously, this was all too common. In response to a parliamentary question, the State Claims Agency told me that at least five families are suing the State regarding the circumstances of family members catching the illness in hospitals or nursing homes.

Last week, the Department of Health told me that 74,283 people had signed up for the Be on Call for Ireland recruitment campaign but a mere 355 of them were actually recruited. That is hard to believe. I listened to nurses from nursing homes and hospitals crying on the phone to me, telling me they needed staff as soon as possible. Some of them were actually going on social media, asking members of the public to help them.

It also emerged last week that the Government is carrying out an inquiry into the State's handling of the pandemic, which I welcome, and we had called for that. Nursing homes should be the primary focus of that inquiry. I have much respect for the Minister of State and it must be borne in mind that many of the fatal mistakes that were made with regard to nursing homes were made before she went into government. Let us take, for example, the fact that when the pandemic broke out, nursing homes decided to close their doors to visitors, only to be slapped on the wrist by NPHET and the Department, and told that the doors should remain open and closure was not necessary. We were also told in reports that the HSE intercepted supplies of PPE, oxygen and staff that were designated for nursing homes, and “intercepted” is the word that was used by the health spokesperson for Fianna Fáil at the time, Deputy Stephen Donnelly. Freedom of information documents show that the Minister, Deputy Simon Harris, repeatedly ignored meeting requests from Tadhg Daly of Nursing Homes Ireland during that time. On 16 April last year, the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, furnished this House with a survey she had conducted of nursing homes, which found that 60% of them had no supply of PPE.

I welcome the fact the Government is launching this inquiry but we need to have a discussion about how it will run. We need to have a discussion in Leinster House on the terms of reference of this inquiry. There is no way this inquiry should fail to have the input of all elected representatives in the Dáil and all of the 26 counties of the State. The Government, the previous Government and the HSE have serious questions to answer about what happened in nursing homes and in hospitals around the country, and how the pandemic was handled. We need to get to the truth of it.

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