Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am grateful to have the time to talk about the easing of Covid-19 restrictions and I thank all speakers for their contributions. Without a doubt, Ireland has come through some dark and challenging days, and I hope and expect that we are now entering a brighter time. It is timely for the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Deputy Harris, to be in the House because he was here at the start, while we are representing the current Minister for Health, Deputy Donnelly, this evening.

It has been more than 22 months since Covid-19 arrived with us, causing immense disruption across our health and social care services and society. I wish to recognise the extraordinary continuing contribution of all our front-line staff and the public during this unprecedented time. This has been essential to coping with Covid-19. As the Ministers of State, Deputies Feighan and Butler, have noted, it is thanks to their hard work, and the exceptional support of the Irish people for the necessary public health restrictions and for the national vaccination programme that we are in a position to ease these restrictions.

It is also important to remember the grief that is felt by so many who have lost loved ones to the pandemic. Covid-19 has taken a devastating toll on so many families around the country. However, no one should be in any doubt that the collective efforts of the Irish people during this difficult time have saved many lives. We will take time in March, around St. Patrick’s Day, to remember those we have lost and to recognise these efforts.

We have been learning and adapting our response throughout the pandemic and we have already established processes, as needed, as part of ensuring the best possible response to this unprecedented challenge. The Minister, Deputy Donnelly, recently established a new public health reform expert advisory group, with a membership of 13 national and international public health experts, chaired by Professor Hugh Brady. This expert group will initially focus on identifying learnings from the public health components of the response to the Covid-19 pandemic in Ireland. It will then look at strengthening health protection in Ireland generally and enhancing our future public health pandemic preparedness. It will also identify lessons from international best practice regarding reform and strengthening of our core public health functions. The first meeting of the group took place on Monday. We look forward to hearing its findings when it reports in the middle of this year.

As the Minster with responsibility for disabilities, it is important that I raise how Covid-19 also presented huge challenges for people with disabilities and their families over the course of the pandemic. Services were unavoidably impacted by necessary restrictions in line with public health guidance. All services continued to be provided to service users with the highest priority throughout the pandemic and, in line with the guidance provided, all services are currently being built back up to full capacity in a safe and robust manner.

One of the main issues raised with me over the pandemic relates to adult day services, which were probably the disability service most affected by the crisis. Approximately 18,000 people attend adult day services, including more than 4,000 people in receipt of both residential and day services, so it is a substantial cohort. Adult day services had been closed from March 2020 but I made it a priority to open them by deeming disability services an essential service in mid-2020. In September 2020, all day services reopened at reduced capacity, reflecting public health guidance, and then reopened at full capacity on 22 October 2021. While services were closed or reduced, innovative and original remote supports were developed. The curtailment and reduction in service was in line with public health guidance but also due to staff shortages in residential and day services due to Covid-19.

For those watching and listening in, I am aware that, more recently, significant staff shortages are still causing issues in residential and day services. Some locations have had to close for a short duration while other day services have had reduced service levels in line with the availability of staff. I am monitoring this closely from week to week but I am delighted that the HSE reports that the number of staff on Covid leave is decreasing. While there will continue to be a level of disruption to day services in the months ahead, the HSE is confident these are manageable. I can confirm that the HSE expects full restoration of day services by the end of March.

Another issue often raised with me is respite. While some centres remained open, others operated at a reduced capacity and some were temporarily repurposed as isolation facilities. I made €5 million available in the 2021 budget to open nine additional respite houses in 2021 to provide an additional 10,400 respite nights in a full year. Work continues to progress on the nine respite houses for 2021, with five of the houses now either fully or partially operational. Unfortunately, some of the houses were subject to delays relating to recruitment and procurement, and the remainder of the houses are due to open in the coming months. Notwithstanding this, it’s positive to see that the number of respite overnights operated at 4.5% ahead of the national service plan target for the first three quarters of 2021.

The delivery of therapeutic interventions to children awaiting services has been hindered by the pandemic. Disability service providers worked innovatively to ensure supports could be provided across the sector. This included assessments and therapeutic interventions for children either online or in person throughout the pandemic. I am continuing work to ensure there is an increase in the delivery of interventions on the ground so our children get the supports they so badly need. For me, this is the most important success I could achieve in 2022 after such a disruption in service.

Regarding the Government’s agreement to give a Covid-19 recognition payment to front-line public sector healthcare workers to recognise their unique role during the pandemic, it is important I take this opportunity to echo the Taoiseach’s comments during Leaders’ Questions yesterday regarding section 39 organisations as I have received many questions seeking clarity on this. Those eligible for the Covid-19 recognition payment are general front-line public healthcare workers who are directly employed by the public health sector and who worked or trained in environments exposed to Covid-19 or clinical settings. Aside from the staff covered by that, staff also intended to be covered by this arrangement are home carers working for and contracted out to the HSE and agency staff who worked in clinical settings for the HSE, including agency nurses, doctors, cleaners and paramedics. Those working in long-term disability care facilities under section 39 and in public-private voluntary nursing homes and hospices are also covered. The arrangements for processing this decision are currently being finalised by the Department of Health and the HSE.

As my colleagues have noted, while we are now in a positive position, it is important to stress that Covid-19 is not yet over in Ireland. There is a need for ongoing close monitoring of the virus. The emergence of new variants with increased levels of transmissibility, immune escape or virulence remains a high risk, both nationally and globally. This point is particularly important in the context of continued high levels of infection and variance in vaccine supply and uptake globally. It is important that we continue to follow public health advice and we must maximise the uptake of the primary and booster vaccinations. Our national vaccination programme will continue to work to reach those who have not yet been protected, and work is under way to ensure that a flexible and robust vaccine delivery system is in place for the future.

Throughout this crisis, the solidarity demonstrated across communities all around Ireland has helped us to rise to the immense challenges we have faced. As we move forward, it is important that we continue to show this same solidarity and give each other the space to adapt and respond to the lifting of restrictions in our own time. This is a shared responsibility for us all and it will be critical as we adapt to this new phase of management of the pandemic. We know what we can achieve by working together.

It is also important to acknowledge the role that carers in the home played throughout all of the pandemic. While I talk about respite or day services not being available, it is not wasted on me or my colleagues that the people who deliver that are also the carers in the home. I acknowledge the pressure and the stress that they are under. We all have to work together on this. One of the first things that I learned when I went into the Department of Health was about the collective approach by the Department of Health, HSE and the providers. We need to not lose that as we come out of Covid. We need to ensure that collaborative work together continues, because that is the only way that we can get jobs done.

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