Micheál Martin accuses Mary Lou of misrepresenting Covid phonecall 

The Taoiseach looked visibly annoyed by Ms McDonald's description of the phone call and said that Sinn Féin works to undermine the HSE.

The Taoiseach has accused the Sinn Féin president of misrepresenting a phonecall they had about NPHET advice on the proposed level 5 lockdown.

During Tuesday's Leader's Questions, Mary Lou McDonald said that during the call on Monday, the Taoiseach could not reassure her that the health service was winter-ready.

"When we spoke yesterday, I asked you to provide assurances that we were winter-ready," she said.

"I find that very worrying, given the range of infection in the community, the resurgence of the virus in nursing homes, and the increase in people over the age of 65 contracting this virus.

"It seems to me that government does not have its eye on the ball and doesn't have a grasp on what's actually needed to ensure that people can live safely alongside the virus.

"More is the pity that back in 2009, when we had to 289 intensive care beds and when we knew that was grossly insufficient, you and others in government didn't have the foresight to plan for proper capacity.

"We are now reaping the harvest of more than a decade of underinvestment in our public health system and the truth is that we do not have the necessary capacity to reassure the public."

The Taoiseach looked visibly annoyed by Ms McDonald's description of the phone call and said that Sinn Féin works to undermine the HSE.

"What's essential in dealing with a pandemic of this scale and severity is unity of purpose and confidence, including within this house," he said.

"You've consistently sought in recent times to undermine government efforts, and not just the efforts of the government but the efforts of the health service executive in the context of acute hospital care, in the context of testing capacity, and so forth.

"You've now misrepresented the telephone conversation you had with me yesterday when you said I couldn't give you assurances. That is not true, and you have no right to misrepresent a phone call of that importance.

"I took you in good faith, and you were very clear to me that it would have been catastrophic to move to level five, you couldn't understand how we would be going from level two to level five. I agree with you on that.

"What's also has to be acknowledged and I think the CMO does acknowledge, the impact of moving to level five would have been very very severe on the lives of many, many people.

"It's not unreasonable for government to take stock. You seem to consistently disagree with the leadership team within the HSE who are consistently saying to me they have capacity to deal with the current situation.

"On testing, supply at the moment is more than capable of meeting the demand, it's one of the few countries around still that's in a position to meet demand, and as exceeding demand right now and that includes all of the serial testing and significant progress has been made on testing, but it never gets acknowledged by you or by others.

"Of course we can do better, but there's been a quantum leap forward in the last number of months."