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

I could not agree more. As an example, people within the drug community are especially marginalised. These would be people who are active drug users who are getting supports from community drug teams. There had been a fractious relationship at times between Government agencies and some of the community projects. All of that was washed away during Covid, however, because everybody recognised we needed to work together to ensure what we did supported those who are particularly marginalised and disadvantaged.

My concern is that some of those learnings are being lost and that State agencies are in some ways reasserting their silo to a certain extent. That is why we need a detailed study or report into how we all worked together, what worked very well, what did not and what practices and policies we can put in place to ensure that if a pandemic ever happened again, which it possibly could, we are ready for it and the State agencies take those learnings of the very good work during Covid and move them into present-day work.

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