Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

It seems to me that the fact the Minister does not have the figures illustrates the problem with this approach of establishing a grant and then crèches and crèche operators having to jump through various hoops to get the grant and then install the filters, as opposed to simply going out and saying this is important and that the Department will centrally purchase the appropriate number of HEPA filters needed and then distribute them into the facilities across the country. Can the Minister at least reassure me some HEPA filters have been installed under this grant scheme? I know that in respect of schools, for example, a couple of weeks ago a similar grant scheme was in operation and not a single HEPA filter had been installed as a consequence. The principals said that was a long bureaucratic process and that it would be the summer before they got there. Is the same hampering the roll-out under this scheme in the crèches?

The final point I will make is the importance of long Covid. We know that about 10% of people get long Covid. Obviously, many of them will recover from that, but it can affect children particularly, which means it is vital we do everything we can to protect children as well as staff.

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