Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

There are two issues I want to raise with the Minister. I will be as brief as I can. The first is in relation to Cork. There is little other talk than concern around the potential move to level 3.

There is also the very serious situation in hospitals. Dr. Ronan Boland told Claire Byrne's show on Tuesday that there were just three acute beds left between the Mercy University Hospital and Cork University Hospital, CUH, to treat any acute case that might arise among Cork's 500,000 people. Yesterday, the Mercy hospital said that patients should seek care elsewhere due to the pressure on the system. It is clear there is a particular issue regarding hospital beds in Cork. Currently, there are issues with regard to community hospitals and issues like that, which I know have been discussed in other areas, and that due to the pressures they may not be admitting additional patients. Can we look at that with a view to resolving some of those issues, even at a later stage, because beds in community hospitals and step-down beds relieve the pressure on acute hospitals? Whatever the case, we need to find additional capacity in hospitals in Cork.

The other issue I want to raise is that schools are open. I welcome that and give credit to the people involved in that, including many people in the Department and the Minister, but we need a specific plan to keep the schools open. The Minister knows that teachers and school staff are very concerned about the difficulty with regard to social distancing. We have 1,300 schools in the State with classes of more than 30 children. There is a need for a significant investment to fund and deliver additional space and the staff required for them. We need additional space to ensure that schools can adhere to social distancing and safety for the children, the school staff and everyone connected to the schools because there is a great deal of concern and it needs to be addressed. There are issues around communication also. I have corresponded with the Minister on that but it needs to be addressed.

See this speech in context