Mayo praise for swift action on Beacon Hospital controversy

A Mayo Oireachtas member has praised the swift action of the government in dealing with the Beacon Hospital controversy.

Senator Lisa Chambers said the privilege displayed by those involved provoked mass outrage and the right decision was taken to suspend the vaccination programme at the hospital.

"Senior government figures were right in putting it back on the board of the hospital to take action because people want to see consequences. It was handled quite well," she added.

Health Minister Stephen Donnelly said what happened there was completely unacceptable.

"There is no excuse whatsoever for what happened.

"It was clearly against the agreed protocols and the entire ethos of our vaccination programme, which is to vaccinate the most vulnerable first.

"We do that because we want to minimise the damage this virus can do to our country.

"By vaccinating the most vulnerable first, as well as our healthcare workers who take care of those who get sick, we minimise the risk, maximise the benefit of the vaccination programme and speed up our ability to open back up again.

"Some may say that what happened at the Beacon only involved 20 doses in a pool of 800,000 that have been administered.

"I do not accept that. It is not about the 20 doses, it is about the signal it sent out."

Speaking generally on the vaccination roll-out in An Seanad yesterday, the minister acknowledged the frustrations of many people.

"However," he stated, "it has been our intention from the beginning to vaccinate on the basis of vulnerability to the virus to save as many lives as possible and to bring about a return to normality in Ireland as quickly as possible.

"This approach has been very successful thus far. We all remember the devastating effect the pandemic had on the nursing home sector last year.

"Those living in these congregated settings are some of the most vulnerable in our society to this pandemic.

"In January, 15% of all Covid cases were in nursing home outbreaks.

"By mid-March, this figure had been reduced from 15% to 1%.

"I hope this has afforded comfort to the residents of nursing homes and their families and to the staff who have worked tirelessly, often in very perilous conditions, to care for our loved ones.

"The recent increase of permitted visits to nursing homes will have a profound effect on many families and improve the lives of nursing home residents."