The Secretary General of the Department of Health will this morning warn that the COVID-19 crisis could last for years.
Jim Breslin is expected to give the warning when he appears before the Oireachtas COVID-19 committee later this morning.
The chief medical officer and the HSE chief executive will also answer questions on the State response to the virus at the meeting.
File photo of Claire TD Michael McNamara leaving Leinster House, 28-05-2015. Image: Sam Boal/RollingNewsOn Newstalk Breakfast this morning, committee chair Michael McNamara said members would try to get clarity on exactly where we are with testing and contact tracing.
There has been a certain lack of clarity around that for a some now with very ambitious targets being set out and frequently not being met,” he said.
“The public simply are not very clear about how long it is going to take them to get test results. We have had a number of different reports and it is important that everybody is clear on where we are at.
“We are all in this together; we are all subject to restrictions on our basic liberties that that could not have been contemplated a few short months ago.
“That our hospitality sector would be shut down, our whole retail sector would be shut down, that we would not be manufacturing - none of this could have been contemplated a few short months ago, so we do need clarity.”
Social distancing
The meeting is going ahead in the Dáil Chamber despite the concerns of former HSE chief Tony O’Brien, who warned that it has no windows and is as “enclosed a space as could be imagined.”
He warned that having the country’s top health officials in the chamber for up to four hours is too great a risk.
Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan at the daily COVID-19 briefing in the Department of Health, 19-05-2020. Image: Sasko Lazarov/RollingNewsSpeaking last night, Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan said he would not attend if he did not think it was safe.
“I have been invited and I am going to attend,” he said. “The precise arrangements will obviously have to comply with the public health advice as will any public meeting.
“Any public organisation organising meetings, including ourselves, will have to organise them in a way that enables participants to comply with public health advice.
“Obviously given the positions we hold we have to be seen to uphold out own public health advice – of course I wouldn’t go if I didn’t think it was safe.”
He said the finer details of the plan were still be arranged.
“What we want to do is to facilitate the meeting going ahead – I want to be clear about that,” he said.
“To make ourselves available for the work of the committee and support the work of the committee in a way that complies with public health guidance.”
Sinn Féin Health spokesperson Louise O’Reilly TD on the Plinth, Leinster House, 15-04-2020. Image: Sasko Lazarov / RollingNewsSinn Féin health spokesperson Louise O’Reilly said it is essential that the Dáil has oversight of the pandemic response.
“We are already using the Dáil Chamber, which I think is probably the biggest room in the Leinster House complex and no session will take longer than two hours so I think what Tony (O’Brien) needs to understand is that we will follow any health and safety reports and we will follow any necessary health and safety advice – but we will be insisting that the Dáil exercises its right to have oversight,” she said.
She said members will be investigating the decision were made as the outbreak began and the advice that was used to make them.
“What exactly was informing their moves? Who were they speaking to? How was communication between all of these various committees?” she said.
“Because we are very familiar with NPHET (National Public Health Emergency Team), but NPHET has, I think, at least 11 sub-groups and there are also groups with the HSE.
“So, we want to find out how these groups were communicating and what impact that had on the capacity of the health service to responded quickly to an evolving pandemic situation.”
The first session will get underway at 11am this morning.
