Paul Donnelly (Dublin West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I commend the community call initiative, which I was involved with in Dublin West, where we delivered hundreds of meals and medication for people who were in dire need. What really struck me at the time was how isolated and vulnerable older people in particular were and those who had disabilities. I was at a recent launch of iCommunity with the Taoiseach and the Minister for Communities in the North, Ms Deirdre Hargey. I was struck by the Disability Action Network saying that 35% of social care had been impacted, more than half the people surveyed experienced disruption to accessing food and medication, and there was a notable decline in physical and mental well-being. We are still seeing the effects of that today. One of the issues is around the management of such effects. What did we do during Covid and what do we need to do post Covid to ensure that, if circumstances such as those arise again, we are in a better place to deal with them? There are many learnings.

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