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08 Sept 2025
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08 Sept 2025
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Dealgan House in Dundalk
The issue of an inquiry into the deaths of 23 people who died in a Dundalk nursing home in 2020 was raised once more with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar in Leinster House last week by Sinn Féin TD Ruairí Ó Murchú.
Directly addressing Mr Varadkar, the Dundalk TD asked when the families of those who died in Dealgan House Nursing Home in April and May 2020 will get answers.
His question to the Taoiseach came more than three years after a number of the families met with Health Minister Stephen Donnelly to ask him for a mechanism to get the truth as to how their loved ones died.
Deputy Ó Murchú said: “Could I get an update on the timeline for the inquiry into how the State dealt with the Covid crisis?
“Have we looked at what particular modules this will deal with? My specific question is about how we deal with those families who lost loved ones in nursing homes.
“This is not the first time I have brought up with the Taoiseach the issue of Dealgan House and the families of the 23 who lost their lives at the beginning of the Covid crisis and who still await answers.
“The State and the Minister for Health have promised them that but, unfortunately, it has been up to themselves and the resilience they have shown.
“We need to give them answers and a means and a mechanism to deal with the particular issues that happened in Dealgan House”.
The Taoiseach admitted there are “challenges” around finding people to serve on the inquiry and added that the terms of reference for the Covid 19 inquiry still have to be brought to government.
Mr Varadkar said: “To respond to Deputy Ó Murchú, the terms of reference for the Covid inquiry have to go to the Government. We hope this will happen soon. We are keen to engage with the Opposition on it.
“We will have to find members to serve on it and this will be complicated because we want people to serve on the inquiry who can be members of it but who were not involved in making decisions on Covid or commenting on them. This will be quite a challenge”.
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