Eugene Murphy (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We are hearing every side of the Covid debate today. It is with great sadness I rise to tell the House of a story that is breaking online in the Roscommon Herald in recent hours. A nursing home in the Roscommon-Galway border - I will not mention it or the people involved but the names are here - has been left in a state of absolute emergency after the majority of staff and 26 of the 28 residents tested positive for the coronavirus.The director has been in tears. She tested positive herself. She has no symptoms but obviously cannot go to the nursing home. The result is that the nursing home has been left with one nurse, one care assistant, one chef and one food server. The HSE's intervention was sought. It promised to help and did send one nurse but, because so many staff have been affected, that nurse and one care assistant were left in charge of the patients. One resident has died and two are being hospitalised today. It has been described by a local GP, Dr. Daly, as a state of emergency. It is really sad and we have seen this before. I will not prolong my contribution as I will be working behind the scenes later but I ask the Minister, whom I know will be very compassionate, to bring this to the attention of the Government and get the HSE to do everything possible in the coming hours to sort this out. If it is not sorted, most of the residents will end up in hospital.