The Health Minister and HSE are under fire from Deputy Michael Lowry for not recognising quickly enough the threat post by Covid-19 to nursing homes.
The Thurles TD raised the issue in the Dáil on April 2nd highlighting what he described as one of the chinks in our response saying nursing homes had the explosive potential to spread the virus.
Speaking on Tipp Today he said at that point there was already a serious outbreak in a local nursing home.
Deputy Lowry says the HSE was too slow to react to the crisis.
“I always felt that, you know, historically, there was a them and us there.”
“The HSE considered the private nursing homes not to be in their domain and effectively to be in competition with them.”
“I think that was the kind of mentality that was there at the beginning of this crisis. Now I accept that it changed and I accept that the PPE gear has been delivered and I accept that the HSE has stepped in. But in my opinion it was too little too late.”
