Marian Harkin (Sligo-Leitrim, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle and the Minister of State. She mentioned, as I did, the importance of day care centres which is a social setting. It gives people an opportunity get out of their homes and makes such a difference to their mental health, as well as their physical health. That is all a given.

The Minister of State stated that one of the reasons that some day care centres were not reopened related to infection prevention and control. While that is important, we have to strike a balance. We cannot just say "No, no, no" to the positive benefits of reopening as quickly as possible. I am not asking the her or anybody in the HSE to reopen centres that they consider dangerous or that would not be beneficial for people, but if everything has to be perfect, A1 down the list of tick boxes before a centre can open, she and I know that instead of the 333 centres that she had hoped to have opened at the end of October, as she has said or the 315 centres she hopes to be open by Christmas, that will not happen. That is good progress and she is getting there with her target and I hope that St Patrick’s Community Hospital and some of the other centres that I spoke about will be among those.

That will certainly give me great courage to think that could have happened but we need to be practical about this. According to the information I received, St. Patrick’s Community Hospital needed toilets to be refurbished, painting and a new floor. That is the sort of thing that can be done fairly quickly. Carrick-on-Shannon is the county town and the biggest town in Leitrim but to think that it is without a day care centre, and to think that somebody sent me a response to say that there were centres open with the exception of one, a small centre 25 km to 53 km away is nonsense. Carrick-on-Shannon needs to be prioritised and the other centre that is causing a great deal of concern is Easky, County Sligo.

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