Strict rules mean officials get a short, snappy grilling – as TDs can’t grandstand
STRICT coronavirus restrictions have done something many thought impossible. Grand-standing by TDs was severely curtailed due to the two-hour limit on Dáil sessions.
The chairman of the Covid-19 Response Committee, Michael McNamara, warned TDs he had to be “ruthless” with time-keeping “to make sure everybody gets a fair crack of the whip”.
This resulted in brief five-minute slots for most politicians to grill senior health officials. What played out was six hours of – by TDs’ standards – snappy questioning as they sought answers on how the State is responding to perhaps the greatest crisis to ever hit the country.
So what have we learned – and not learned – from the officials who have a massive influence on how Ireland is dealing with the pandemic?
1. The cost of the new National Children’s Hospital (NCH) – which has already spiralled to a sum in the region of €2bn – could rise by as much as 40pc, based on Construction Industry Federation (CIF) estimates of the impact of new workplace safety measures such as physical distancing. Separately, the CIF projected that the cost of building a house could rise by €15,000.
2. Department of Health secretary general Jim Breslin expects the Covid-19 emergency to last for years. He said: “We need to be aware that we will continue to be in the acute emergency phase of this crisis for some time, with further waves an ever-present danger.”
3. The HSE’s plan for coronavirus testing and contact tracing is expected to cost “several hundreds of millions of euro”, according to HSE boss Paul Reid. TDs were told the health service can now carry out 100,000 tests a week and costs so far have come to €35m.
4. A total of 43 health service staff have become so ill with Covid-19 that they ended up in Intensive Care Units (ICUs).
TDs were told that this is a lower rate of ICU admissions than the general population.
Overall, 31.5pc of coronavirus cases have occurred among healthcare workers and 259 have been hospitalised.
5. Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan and Mr Reid were at odds over employers receiving details of their workers’ coronavirus test results. The Data Protection Commissioner received complaints on the issue. Mr Holohan said this amounts to “a breach of confidentiality, full stop”. Mr Reid defended employers being given workers’ results “in extremely exceptional cases” such as in a pandemic. The HSE last night confirmed it is suspending the practice.
6. Ireland won’t be recommending the use of a drug US President Donald Trump says he is taking to stave off coronavirus. Mr Trump said he is taking hydroxychloroquine – usually used for malaria and lupus. Waterford TD Matt Shanahan asked health officials if it was being considered for use here. The HSE’s chief clinical officer Dr Colm Henry said more research was needed and the drug had cardiac side-effects so it won’t be recommended here.
7. Mr Holohan could not say when the 14-day quarantine rules for passengers arriving to Irish airports would be lifted. It came after Fine Gael TD Colm Brophy warned the regulations could “kill our tourism industry”. Mr Holohan said no measure that has been recommended will be in place longer than health officials believe it is necessary.
8. Health chiefs offered no guarantee that all nursing homes are fully compliant with infection control procedures. Fine Gael TD Fergus O’Dowd raised the issue, saying 18pc of homes inspected in 2018 were non-complaint, and asked for “absolute assurance” that they all are now. Mr Breslin could not give this guarantee but said both public and private nursing homes know their responsibilities.
9. The need for social-distancing means emergency care in hospitals will have to change this winter. Mr Reid told TDs that the record trolley crisis seen last year cannot happen and things will have to be done “very differently”.
10. Dáil business continues to be carried out very differently. Sessions of longer than two hours are not allowed as, after that time, if someone present falls ill with the virus, the participants are all considered ‘close contacts’.
Oireachtas authorities have also sought further health advice after some of the committee witnesses were unwilling to attend together for more than one two-hour session. While Mr Holohan and Mr Breslin were in the Dáil Chamber for the first session, Mr Reid gave his evidence by video-link from a room elsewhere in the Leinster House complex later in the day. New advice offered to the Oireachtas suggests even taking a break between two-hour sessions may not be enough for the participants not to be considered close contacts. So even more strict rules may be coming down the line.
Dáil business is being carried out very differently as well