Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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545. To ask the Minister for Health the amounts paid out in TAPS funding to nursing homes since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic by county. [29931/21]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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The Temporary Assistance Payment Scheme (TAPS) for nursing homes was established in April 2020 to provide financial assistance to contribute towards the costs incurred by private nursing homes in acting to suppress and manage COVID-19. The Government made up to €92.5m available under TAPS in 2020. A further €42m was made available for 2021 under the extension of the Scheme until the end of June.

As of 2 July 2021, the HSE reported to the Department that €109.2m had been paid out under TAPS.

The Scheme has fulfilled its temporary purpose of providing financial support to nursing homes to address COVID-19. Although the risk is greatly reduced, it has not been completely eliminated, therefore the outbreak assistance element of the Scheme will continue to be available to nursing homes until the end of 2021. Availability of outbreak assistance is subject to the overall sanctioned amount of €42m for 2021.

The substantial package of non-financial supports outlined below will continue to be provided for the time being:

- Provision of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). The continued supply of PPE is a key support mechanism and will be provided in line with clinical and public health recommendations;

- The COVID-19 Response Teams established to support Public Health Outbreak teams covering all residential services as well as home support settings. All stakeholders, including the COVID-19 Nursing Homes Expert Panel, have highlighted the significant contribution these new teams have made to supporting nursing homes throughout the pandemic;

- The HSE Temporary Accommodation Scheme;

- HSE training and development resources, including the opening up of HSELanD to private and voluntary providers.

- IPC support and advice;

- The substantial suite of publicly available guidance developed to support the sector.

These measures and supports reflect a significant investment by the State to support nursing homes and other services and measures, such as the COVID-19 Response Teams, and are a clear signal of the work that is ongoing to integrate the wider health system.

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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547. To ask the Minister for Health the reason numerous applications made by a nursing home (details supplied) for TAPS have been unsuccessful. [29933/21]

Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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As this Parliamentary Question relates to an operational issue, it is a matter for the HSE. However, members of the Oireachtas are advised that the HSE is currently unable to access the information to answer Parliamentary Questions due to the recent cyber-attack, which has required a temporary shut-down of HSE IT systems. The disruption to service is on-going, and the HSE is working hard to restore its IT capacity and resume normal services. Members of the Oireachtas will be advised as soon as the HSE is again in a position to provide responses to PQs and are encouraged to resubmit their Parliamentary Questions at that point.