Matt Shanahan reviews COVID committee work and urges action
Matt Shanahan reviewed the work of the COVID Special Committee and argued the Government should adopt its recommendations, stressing the committee produced valuable interim reports on testing, nursing homes and enterprise. He praised frontline staff and industry for PPE supplies, criticised gaps in testing and tracing and called out missed recruitment and hospital capacity decisions.
Committee appraisal
The speaker thanked the chairman and secretariat and said the committee aimed to be constructive and forward-looking. He noted the committee produced interim reports on testing and tracing, nursing homes and stimulating enterprise and stressed that the expertise gathered remains important.
PPE and frontline staff
He paid tribute to private industry that opened supply chains in Asia to provide PPE and to frontline workers for their heroism amid resourcing shortages. He acknowledged early failures could not all have been foreseen and highlighted the difficulty of prioritising ICU capacity.
Testing, tracing and recruitment
The speaker criticised gaps in testing and tracing capacity and the lack of rapid testing availability, including debate over antigen testing efficacy. He also cited the missed opportunity of a large volunteer response - over 70,000 offers to help with only around 800-900 taken on - and urged better use of that goodwill.
Private hospitals and elective care
He said the State booked private hospital surge capacity that proved largely unnecessary but failed to secure elective capacity, calling that a Government "own goal". He warned this has contributed to current deferral of elective work and voiced regret that elective capacity was not retained.
Congregated settings and other risks
The speaker highlighted outbreaks in meat factories linked to ventilation and temperature, and raised concerns about congregated settings including direct provision centres. He also said mask use should have been adopted earlier and referenced construction cost pressures and the July stimulus work the committee reviewed.
Committee future and recommendations
He expressed disappointment the committee has been disbanded and urged the Government to take on the committee's recommendations. He argued the committee's interim reports and expertise remain relevant as the pandemic continues and more testing and tracing capacity is needed.
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Thank you, Caerleach. Caerleach, I think the work of the COVID Special Committee, we did a lot of good work and I would like to pay special thanks to the Chairman Deputy McNamara and to the Secretariat also and I would like to also highlight colleagues on the committee who were elevated to front bench office, Minister Donnelly, Minister Butler, Minister Foley and I am not sure where Deputy McGuinness went but anyway, we start and he felt his loss from the committee. The original proposition of the committee, I think on the day that it was being formed, I said that I wanted to be part of a committee that would be constructive and look forward. I understood very well, as most people did, that there were significant failings possibly in the government and social response to that date but I felt that we need to keep looking forward because, as a number of people have said, we are not out of this by a long way yet. I would highlight some of the challenges that came up in terms of the COVID committee and very early on we were faced with the issue of PPE and I think great credit must go to a lot of private industry in Ireland who liaised and opened their supply chains in Asia to the HSE to get PPE into the country. We must, of course, acknowledge our frontline staff and the heroism that they displayed throughout with a significant lack of resourcing and some of that could not have been envisaged prior. We also know the issues that came up in the nursing homes and it has been highlighted here again tonight but, you know, this was a new learning experience and nobody could have foreseen where we are. We were trying to prioritise the liberty of ICU beds and maybe in that was the failing of transferring people from the hospitals to the nursing homes without having adequate testing in place. But, with respect to testing and tracing, I would also highlight Ireland's call, a huge response from Ireland people both home and abroad, expats coming back. We had over 70,000 responses and I think it was a great shame that we did not utilise the people that responded to that. At the end of the day, I am not sure that more than 800 or 900 people were actually taken on out of that. That is a huge bank of goodwill that we should have used and we should continue to be looking at now, in my opinion. I would also highlight the meat factories which, as has been said, have major difficulties and that has got to do with convection, has got to do with conditioning, has got to do with temperature. Congregated settings came up in terms of direct provision centres as well as factory place settings. I would also highlight an extraordinary deal that was done in the early stage which was with the private hospitals for surge capacity. It is a pity that Minister Donnelly is not here now, or I would remind him how strident he was to have that deal looked at. We booked a lot of bed space that ultimately was not required, but we did not book the elective capacity that was there in the private hospitals, which was definitely an own goal on the Government's behalf. We have now the deferral of other elective work which is happening. Then we looked at travel, transport and public transport issues and into that came mask wearing, which we should have been doing, in my opinion, and I asked for it very early on from the start. I asked for it sometime at the end of March. We also had the construction sector in where we heard Tom Parlin tell us that we would be seeing a 40 per cent rise in cost to build a children's hospital. He might be proven right after all of the present evidence is to be followed. Then we had the July stimulus. I think it was very important that we produced an interim report into that. I think there were a lot of good initiatives that everybody contributed into that, and the Government, to be fair, and the Minister for Finance did take on some of those. We have learned a lot, I think, about NEFET, and I suppose we have to say, and Deputy Murphy, who has gone, alluded to the fact that that was in place. I have voiced on the committee quite a number of times frustration, not necessarily with NEFET, but just in terms of the way access is provided to it. We heard from David Nabarra of The Who, who has highlighted the fact that, in his opinion, lockdowns are not a good step. We are at the moment actually going against that conventional advice, but maybe we are doing it because we have to, and largely I believe we are doing it because we do not have adequate testing and tracing, and we do not have adequate rapid testing in place. I think also NEFET, I asked the Minister, again, he has left the chamber, but I asked him some weeks ago, could we provide a platform for industry to engage directly with NEFET? There are significant thought leaders and business leaders out there, and I think their opinions could well be done with heard. Then, in respect of rapid testing, the tarnish that was in the Enterprise Committee last night, and he spoke about the HICWA report into some of the rapid testing measures, including antigen testing, which I brought to NEFET almost five months ago now, and he said it appeared, according to HICWA's statements, that it was not that efficacious. That seems extraordinary to me, and I am wondering how many antigen tests were looked at in the pool, as opposed to some of the specifics that were brought. Anyway, we brought interim tests and reports in on testing and tracing. We did an interim report on nursing homes, and we did an interim report on stimulating enterprise, and I think this was all very valuable work. But it also asks the question as to where we are now. I would hope the Government would take on the recommendations of the Coval Committee, and I agree with some of the speakers already who have said it is a pity, and I have said this in the House previously, that the Committee has been disbanded. I think we probably need it now more than ever, and we had a significant amount of expertise being built up by the TDs who were present and by some of the other senior experts. I think it would be good to have that level of interrogation as to what is our state of readiness at the moment. I would also highlight that we have COVID pathways now in the hospitals, which is very good from the point of view of managing and trying to defend against the introduction of disease, but at a very significant cost in terms of delays to other elective treatments. And I think we have heard largely about people who are waiting on operations, and particularly those who are waiting diagnostics in terms of possible cancer diagnosis. And that is something that we have to get further up, I suppose, the chain of importance in the HSC. We must defend against COVID, but we must find ways in trying to deal with these diagnostic cases as well. And I have already asked the Minister to consider elongating the hours in our public hospitals where there is large capacity after four o'clock to do diagnostics and imaging if we can find a wherewithal with the workforce. Beyond that, I suppose, one of the things I would say that we have also looked at is the future economic outlook. And we have taken on unprecedented levels of borrowing, and we have also unprecedented levels now of mandated unemployment. And I think this is something we need to think largely in terms of how we are getting out of this. What is the economy going to be like? We have a large amount, particularly of our private, Indigenous and smaller SMEs. And their experience, I would remind everyone in the Chamber and anybody watching, is completely at odds with what is happening in the public sector. These are people who are furloughed. They are indebted. They have seen significant reductions in their pay. They are not able to get out and socialise. They are not able to open their businesses. And I think we must look again at special measures and increased measures, particularly for those sectors. And there are a number who have fallen through the cracks in terms of the stimulus that has been provided. I think most of all now we need social solidarity. And we need to consider these further supports to the critical sectors, while at the same time reflecting that we must get on top of this disease. So I think testing and tracing is the key. I think we will have to bring in rapid testing because it is quite likely vaccines will not be here, despite all of the optimism. It is unlikely we will have any vaccines before April, May, June, I would say at the earliest in any numbers. And so we are going to have to deal with the issues of COVID for a long time. And I would say, I think it is the responsibility now of everybody in this house and every citizen to try and ensure that this lockdown is the last that we impose on the people of this country. We must find a way of living and managing with COVID and keeping businesses some way able to operate, even in a very small way, as Deputy Durkan said earlier. And we must allow small people in small business and private mom and pops to be able to get some income into their store and to get some of their lives back. Thank you, Colonel Corley. Thank you very much. Thank you.
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