Rose Conway-Walsh on Respite, Testing and School Safety
Rose Conway-Walsh questioned the minister on risk assessments for respite services, vaccination roll-out and the lack of local Covid testing in North Mayo and Belmolet. She pressed for an apology for slow responses and read an SNA's account of a school outbreak, demanding transparency and action to protect staff and pupils.
Respite risk assessment
She asked whether a risk assessment had been done for the provision of respite where residents, staff and those seeking respite had been vaccinated, and whether day services had been included in that work.
Questions on HSE staff vaccinations
She asked how many non-frontline HSE staff and their relatives and friends have been vaccinated and whether an investigation into that vaccination coverage had been carried out; the minister said he did not have the specific details to hand.
Vaccination figures cited by the minister
The minister responded that only 1,300 of all over-65s had been vaccinated to date and that 4,000 people under 65 across disabilities have been vaccinated. He said the risk assessment work is under way and is being formulated in tandem with plans to reopen respite services.
Testing access in North Mayo and Belmolet
The deputy welcomed new walk-in test centres in Tullamore and Dublin but said people in Belmolet and County Mayo felt aggrieved after requests for a local test centre were refused. She highlighted long round-trip travel of up to three hours for tests and asked the minister to reflect and apologise for the slow response.
School outbreak and SNA account
She read an SNA's account from a primary school reporting no mass testing, only a mask provided, and an outbreak that began the previous week. The SNA said she had two 20-minute breaks sitting beside a colleague who tested positive but was not classed as a close contact by the HSE; a symptomatic staff member was initially told she was not a close contact, later tested privately positive and the unit was shut. The deputy called for honesty, transparency and action to keep high-risk staff and students safe and to keep schools open.
Minister's response on schools and follow-up
The minister said the safety of students and staff is of "absolute paramount importance" and invited the deputy to bring specific cases forward so they can be investigated and any learnings fed into the system to improve protections.
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Minister, have you done a risk assessment for the provision of respite in the instances where the residents in the respite centre have been vaccinated, all of the staff have been vaccinated and those who are seeking respite have been vaccinated as well, have you done a risk assessment? Can I ask you, Minister, how many non-frontline HSE staff and their relatives and friends have been vaccinated, have you done an investigation into it? Minister, I welcome the walk-in test centres in Tullamore and those who are set up in Dublin, but can you understand, Minister, how aggrieved people in Belmolet and County Mayo feel when they hear this? When they begged for a test centre that would prevent them from having to travel up to three hours round trip to get a test, when the positive cases and people were dying and people were seriously ill and you wouldn't give us a test centre in the North Mayo or the Belmolet area? I would ask you to reflect on that, Minister, and I would ask you to apologise to the people of North Mayo and Belmolet for the slow response to that. Minister, I want to read for you here. I am an SNA in a primary school. Since we have returned to the school there has been none of the mass testing promised. We have been given a mask and told it is all perfectly safe. There is an outbreak of Covid in our schools since last week. I have spent two 20-minute breaks sitting at a table with a staff member who tested positive for a Covid one day later. But according to the HSE I am not a close contact. On Thursday a staff member in the unit presented with Covid symptoms and asked to be tested. The HSE told her she was not a close contact. She did not need testing. She organised a test privately and it came back positive so the unit was shut down. Minister, the Minister for Education will not take any responsibility for what is happening within schools. We all want schools to remain open. We desperately want them to remain open. But I am asking for some honesty, for some transparency and some action within the schools to keep the numbers down and to keep high risk staff and to keep students safe and to keep the schools open. But denial of the problems that exist is not going to deal with them. Thank you Minister. Thank you Deputy Minister. Minister Rabbit. Thank you Deputy for your question there. In relation to respite, you might have missed my earlier contribution where I already said that only 1300 of all of our over 65s have been vaccinated. And we have now moved into the cohort of under 65s right across disabilities of which 4000 have been vaccinated. There is still a way to go on that. The risk assessment is being done on it, but we have not got to the day services of it. But as part of the formulation of it, that is done in tandem with it, so that we can have respite services up and running and are more efficient. Deputy. Deputy. Thank you. I thank the Deputy for her questions as well. With regard to the specific case, I'm sure the Deputy will appreciate that I haven't got the details so I can't respond to it. What I can say is that the safety of students and the safety of staff in our schools is of absolute paramount importance. And can I say to the Deputy, if she has a case and she is concerned about it, please come to me with that and we will have it looked into. Because if there are learnings to be had, and there are always learnings to be had, let me know. I'll feed them into the system because we must have the best possible protections in place for our teachers and for our students. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
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