Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I will mention last night's "Prime Time" programme, which exposed very disturbing and shocking abuse and neglect of older people in some nursing homes. This is an issue that has been very well flagged for a long time. Last year, the Covid committee raised serious concerns, as did the expert group Sage Advocacy and care champions. They have all raised issues relating to the maltreatment of older people. An inquiry is needed, but we know the key things that need to be done urgently and we need action on those. The introduction of statutory staff-resident ratios in nursing homes needs to happen very quickly. It is shocking that they do not exist. Obviously, the Health Information and Quality Authority, HIQA, needs to be given greater powers as a regulator. Those two things should happen, urgently. I ask the Minister to take action on that. The fundamental problem is the privatisation of nursing home care for older people and care for older people generally. It is a major issue that nursing homes are seen as good investment opportunities rather than essential elements of the care service for older people. We need urgent action on that.

On vaccinations, I join with others in thanking and commending HSE staff, GPs, people who volunteered as vaccinators, pharmacists and all the people who really stepped up to roll out the vaccines as quickly as possible. The system has been absolutely fantastic. As somebody who has both experienced it first-hand and also spoken to many people, there is nothing but praise for how the system is working. It has been very successful. More demands will be made on all those people in the coming weeks, but I am very confident they have the capacity to deal with that. There is great willingness and the public has responded extremely well.

I will make a couple of points. Many of the pharmacists have been blindsided. I am getting reports this morning of a big rush to contact pharmacists to find out when people can get access to vaccines. Pharmacists have not been told what their deliveries are likely to be. Many of them have run out of vaccines at this stage and do not know when they will get new deliveries. It is very important that the message of what pharmacists can expect gets out to them as quickly as possible. They are very keen and willing to participate fully, but they need to know what the supplies are going to be.

I will make another point about public health messaging, which has been quite weak in recent weeks. There is now a need to put a new focus on it. We all have a responsibility on the whole question of the importance of vaccinations. All of us in this House have been putting out that message loud and clear. That needs to be repeated. However, we also need to make it clear to people what the waiting period is after completing vaccination in respect of the different vaccines.

Everybody is keen to get back to some kind of normality and to get out and about and so on, but it is important to stress that waiting period. It is not clear in relation to the Janssen vaccine what that waiting period is. We need to be much clearer in the message to people that they are not fully protected until they have completed that waiting period. There is also a need for clarification in regard to the level of protection having had Covid gives to people, particularly in the context of the Delta variant. As of now, we have not heard much about that. The information messaging to people who have had Covid in regard to the period of protection that affords them is not clear. We have a lot of people in that situation and they need clarity in that regard.

The general public health measures, in particular in regard to ventilation, need to be refreshed and repeated. This is an issue that has been neglected by official sources. The tendency is to talk about the medical aspects of this and while they are essential there are also many practical and non-medical or non-pharmaceutical aspects to responding to this and ensuring public safety. Ventilation is a key aspect. The expert group made recommendations but those recommendations do not appear to have been taken on board and incorporated into the public health messaging. I ask the Minister to check the HSE website in regard to ventilation because the information provided there is not accurate. It states that there is no evidence to support that Covid is airborne. That does not stand up any longer. That is an incredible statement that is on the HSE website. It must be changed. There must be clear guidance given to industry as well in regard to the important role of ventilation. That can be as simple as making CO2 monitors obligatory in business premises. This has been taken on board by education, which is great. There has to be clear guidance and standards set out in relation to ventilation. I do not know why we are not doing that. I ask the Minister to take up that matter.

On booster doses, what contingency planning has been made and have pre-orders in that regard been made? On older people, Age Action Ireland has set out a number of requests in regard to the queries and concerns of older people, particularly the over-60s. Concern has been expressed about the fact that they did not get access to what they would see as the best possible vaccines. There needs to be clarification on that. I ask that the Minister interact with Age Action Ireland in particular and that information be provided.

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