Written answers

Wednesday, 3 June 2020

Department of Health

National Public Health Emergency Team

Photo of Richard Boyd BarrettRichard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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742. To ask the Minister for Health if he will provide all the minutes of the expert advisory group, the advices and position papers provided to NPHET and the minutes of the vulnerable and elderly subgroup of NPHET as previously requested through the Covid enquiries line and directly with the CMO at the Special Committee on Covid-19 Response; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9589/20]

Photo of Simon HarrisSimon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) was established on 27 January last in response to the emergence of Covid-19 in Wuhan, China. Since that time, it has met 33 times. In addition to the Expert Advisory Group, a number of sub-groups have also been established to support the work of the NPHET, including on: 

- Acute Hospitals

- Behavioural Change

- Guidance and Evidence Synthesis

- Irish Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group (IEMAG)

- Health Legislation Subgroup

- Medicines and Medical Devices Criticality Subgroups

- Pandemic Ethics Advisory Group

- Vulnerable People Subgroup

- Health Sector Workforce Subgroup

Throughout the progression of the Covid-19 pandemic, there have been enormous efforts made to ensure that the activities and recommendations of NPHET were being appropriately communicated. As such, a dedicated space on the Government's website has been set aside to ensure that all updates are accessible from one location, at . All of the agendas and minutes of the NPHET meetings are being published at this location, and at present these documents are available up to the meeting of 8 May last. In addition, the advice which is presented to the Minister for Health following a meeting of the NPHET is also published, and is currently available up to 22 May.

Minutes of the Expert Advisory Group were published on this website on 27 May last. The minutes of the 13 meetings which took place in February and March are currently available, and it is anticipated that the minutes of the meetings which took place in April will be published during the week commencing 1 June, with minutes of the meetings which took place in May to follow as soon as they become available. Minutes of the Vulnerable People Subgroup are also available on the website, up to 7 May 2020.  I am advised that a process has been established to also enable the release of the various working papers that have been considered by NPHET at its meetings.  

I would also like to recall that my Department is continuing to make a large amount of other documentation available through this channel, including the minutes of other NPHET subgroups, the Governance outline of the NPHET process, and the technical notes of the Irish Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group.

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