Mattie McGrath demands answers on airports and hospital closures

Could I ask the Minister, why did you refuse to seal the airports and trick the airports and ports, you know from the very first meeting when I was a leader of our group, kept asking this question, why weren't you sealing the ports, and now you're doing it from the 16th, but you're closing the stable door when the hostel's bolted, I think 54,000 or 56,000 people came in here from England over Christmas, and none of them were asked about anything, and you're persecuting the people, and now we have a mess. Minister. Thank you, Deputy. So, in terms of international travel into the country, what Ireland did was sign up to the EU-wide approach, which was the traffic light approach, ourselves and all of the other member states implemented that. In terms of airport testing, the consistent public health advice is that it is not the right way to proceed, it's not recommended by the WHO or ECDC, and the very firm view of our public health experts is that it is not the right way to test. The current situation is that inbound travellers, be it airports or ports, cannot come in without a negative, a clear PCR test up to 72 hours before travel. If they arrive without that, they're subject to a prosecution with up to €2,500 fine or six months and or six months in prison. On top of also having a clear PCR test, people coming in need to restrict their movements for two weeks. They need a day five clear PCR test, and if they get that, then they can be released from the two weeks. That would be two PCR tests between five and eight days apart, both of which have to be negative. The situation for Britain and for South Africa is different in that it is two weeks mandatory self-isolation regardless of any tests. In terms of the travel measures, and I think it's a fair question, did we put them in place quickly enough, particularly in light of the UK variant? The timeline in this is as follows. The Friday before Christmas was when the UK government issued a warning and said we have a highly contagious variant here. We worked through the weekend. Our public health officials were in touch with their UK counterparts. I was in touch with mine. On Monday, the COVID committee met and recommended an immediate travel ban for Britain. That was then extended to South Africa based on the South African variant, which has also been detected here. British Hospital in Caldiconshire, you command either of the staff at the outbreak, the last government did. You found a fit for COVID step-down patients. Why did you, and Minister Butler was here, close that hospital in the middle of a pandemic? Why did you also refuse to meet your own colleagues, Councillor Cianne-Brooke and your Fianna Fáil councillors in Tipperary, in relation to St Bridges and Caldiconshire? A wonderful institution, and Minister Butler knows that too well. Why have you pulled the rug from underneath it and denied people that need those services? I don't want to hear answers about diabetic clinics and everything else. The hospital was needed for COVID, was suitable for COVID. But how come it was deemed suitable for COVID if it was not now suitable for patients for convalescing? St Bridges Hospital was built in 1837 in Carrickonshire. It was a long-term residential care home that used to be home to between 16 and 18 residents. The care that was delivered in there was always exceptional. I live not too far from it myself. HICWA raised issues, they flagged issues in 2018, and they flagged issues in relation to the old type of the building. The fact that there was only 76 centimetres between the beds in both wards. There were two five-bedded wards. The fact that there were no shower facilities in the men's bedrooms. Pint of order, please, if I could. I would like to be able to give the answer, please. If I could, now Minister, that is not the question I asked. I said, why did you deem it? Deputy, Deputy, please. No, that is not the question I asked. You can come in if you let the Minister finish. So, HICWA deemed that the facility would not receive registration going forward under infection prevention and control, and due to the fact that they could not guarantee patient safety. So, a decision was decided by the HIC that it wasn't going to be used anymore as a residential centre, but it is going to be recalibrated into a community healthcare network where seven new jobs have been provided, and the situation will be that there will be seven new jobs provided, and it will be used as a facility for people with chronic disease, long-term disease, such as diabetes, asthma, and chronic pain management, and work has started now to reconstruct the premises, and the seven new jobs have been advertised. Thank you. Why was it deemed suitable for HICWA to do COVID patients' step-down during COVID, and then all of a sudden it wasn't suitable? Thank you, Deputy. That's not a point of order, and you might be unhappy that the question wasn't answered, but it's not a point of order.