Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independents 4 Change)
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164. To ask the Minister for Health if he will consider making the use of face masks mandatory in indoor public spaces (details supplied). [16324/20]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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The Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) has published a range of guidance documents outlining the infection prevention and control procedures that apply in various healthcare settings. This includes the use of various types of personal protective equipment including those that might be described as facemasks. These guidance documents are available on the HPSC website at www.hpsc.ie.

More generally, in respect of the use of face coverings by the public and in public places, the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) provided guidance in relation to face coverings in its advice to Government in relation to Phase 2 of the Roadmap for Reopening Business & Society on 4 June. As part of the continuing review of the evidence relating to face coverings, at its meeting on 15 July 2020, NPHET has updated its advice.

The NPHET advice sets out circumstances under which the wearing of a non-medical face covering is recommended. These are when using busy public transport, when in indoor public areas including retail outlets, by people visiting the homes of those who are cocooning, by people who are being visited in their homes by those who are cocooning, all visitors to residential care facilities and in indoor work environments where it is difficult to maintain a two-metre distance. The wearing of face coverings in other environments should accommodate individual judgement or preference or where it is difficult to maintain a 2-metre distance.

It is important to emphasise that the wearing of face coverings is an additional hygiene measure and should not take the place of good hand hygiene, respiratory etiquette and other personal protective public health measures. Face coverings should be used properly, in line with the guidance and to wash hands before putting them on and taking them off.

On the 15th June, the Government and the National Transport Authority launched a national communications campaign which outlines best practice for the use of face coverings in retail outlets, on public transport and in other public locations in which it is difficult to maintain social distancing or where this distance cannot be guaranteed, and are communicating to the public about:

- who should wear face coverings

- in what settings, and how to wear and remove face coverings correctly.

Guidance on how to make and safely use face coverings is available on gov.ie/facecoverings and the HSE website.

On Friday 10th July the Minister for Health having consulted with the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport and the Minister for Justice and Equality, signed the Health Act (Covid-19)(Face Coverings on Public Transport) Regulations 2020. The regulations provide that, from 13 July 2020, members of the public shall not, without reasonable excuse, travel by public transport without wearing a face covering.

Reasonable excuse includes where a person:

- cannot put one on, wear or remove a face covering because of any physical or mental illness, impairment or disability or without severe distress

- needs to communicate with another person who has difficulties communicating

- removes the face covering to provide emergency assistance or to provide care or assistance to a vulnerable person

- removes the face covering to avoid harm or injury, or the risk of harm or injury

- removes the face covering to take medication

The regulations do not apply to children under the age of 13 years.

Following further advice of NPHET, at its meeting of the 15 July 2020, the Government also agreed to the mandatory wearing of face coverings in retail outlets, shops and shopping centres. Retail staff will also be obliged to wear a face covering unless there is a partition between them and members of the public or where there is a distance of 2 metres between them and members of the public. Work on the development of relevant Regulations has commenced.

It is important to note that the public health advice relating to Covid-19, including that relating to face coverings, is kept under continuing review by the National Public Health Emergency Team.

Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independents 4 Change)
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165. To ask the Minister for Health if he will include north County Dublin, Limerick city and so on in the daily Covid-19 dashboard in which new cases are arising; and if he will also include the gender of the daily new cases. [16335/20]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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Since the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) met for the first time, a commitment was given to collect and publish as much relevant data as possible while ensuring individual patient confidentiality is maintained at all times. While the nature and scale of the Covid-19 pandemic has been unprecedented, the collection of timely and comprehensive data has underpinned the efforts of the public health response to Covid-19 and has been instrumental in developing the health service response to Covid-19 and to the advice provided by NPHET and the Department of Health to assist Government decision-making in the wider response to Covid-19 in Ireland.

As the Deputy is aware, comprehensive national statistics, information and data about Covid-19 in Ireland is published on a daily basis on the Covid-19 Data Hub and Dashboards including total cases by county and the gender profile of total cases. These figures are updated daily and are available at . The data available on the site is based on official figures provided by the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) and the Health Service Executive (HSE). This site is built using the GeoHive platform, Ireland's Geospatial Data Hub.

It should be noted that due to the nature of the disease transmission and the clustered effects of the disease, many of the cases occur in relatively small communities where identification of individual patients could be an issue if appropriate measures are not taken to protect individual identities and their locations. The data published to date has been aggregated with this consideration in mind while also ensuring that data is made available in a timely and comprehensive manner to inform the Department and wider Government response but also to ensure the public are kept informed to the greatest extent possible.

The Deputy may wish to note that a range of other data is provided by the CSO including alternative information relating to electoral divisions. This is available on the CSO Covid-19 Information Hub at and in particular at

There is also ongoing collaboration between my Department, the HPSC, HSE, the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer, the CSO, Ordnance Survey Ireland and many other institutions and agencies to improve the data collected and the availability of it on an ongoing basis. I would like to assure the Deputy of my Department's ongoing commitment to publish as much Covid-19 data on an ongoing basis as is practicable, relevant and appropriate.