Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I assure the Deputy I will keep a very close eye on this. As I said, we have 73%, or 237, of day care centres open. Where the challenges arose was in any day care centre that was part of or adjacent to a community hospital, that is, in the community nursing units, and this has happened all over. I will give an example. Even though most of the restrictions were lifted last Friday, there is still quarantine in nursing homes. There are 575 nursing homes in the country and 213 of them have a current outbreak. As I stand here today, 1,000 staff in nursing homes are out due to Covid-related illness.

I chaired an inter-agency meeting last week on nursing homes and community hospitals with the HSE, the Department of Health, HIQA and public health. The number of cases in community nursing units and hospitals seems to be running about two to three weeks behind the spike of 26,000 cases just after Christmas, so we still have to take a very cautious approach.

The problem is bringing people from the community into a community hospital when there are not multiple exits and entrances or multiple dining spaces and sitting room spaces. That is where the challenges are occurring. Of the nursing homes that are not open throughout the country, the majority are located in residential centres and there are challenges with regard to infection prevention and control. I was not aware there were none open in Laois and I give the Deputy a guarantee I will keep a close eye on that. To get older people back into the communities, it is vital they have day care centres. I will liaise with the Deputy again on it.

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