The vast majority of the 8,600 citizens who died from Covid were over 65 years of age. Very frequently their passing was a matter of great upset and trauma for everybody concerned, most of all the families, who could not be present because of the nature of the illness. We promised in our programme for Government to establish a commission on care to assess how we care and to examine alternatives to care for older people, both at home and in nursing homes. Is this a priority? What is the timeline to commence this very important promised commission?

It is absolutely a priority for the Government and for me personally to have the commission on care established. I hope to have it established by the middle of this year. We have had a number of commissions look into particular matters in real depth under the Government. There has been the Commission on Pensions, the Future of Media Commission, the Commission on Taxation and Welfare and the Housing Commission. To be done properly, however, they cannot all be done at the same time. That does not mean that any one issue is more important than the other but, given that the Housing Commission will finish up its work quite soon, we hope to have the commission on care established by the middle of the year.