David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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1359. To ask the Minister for Health if he will address a matter raised in correspondence (details supplied) in relation to press releases from NPHET; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [62989/21]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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The significant IT disruption to all HSE IT systems, including the General Register Office (GRO), caused by the cyberattack earlier this year, reduced the capacity of the Health Protection Surveillance Centre to notify COVID-19 data and resulted in a change to the reporting of epidemiological information. As a result, my Department has not been issuing NPHET press statements regularly on weekends but continue to share the daily figures on our Twitter account at: twitter.com/roinnslainte. 

While there were no press releases published on the 4th and 5th December 2021, the information was made available on my Department's Twitter account. The release from Saturday the 27th November in relation to the reporting of the new variant SARS-CoV-2 Variant B.1.1.529 (Omicron) in Europe is available online.