Stephen Donnelly was warned of staff shortages to deal with Covid-19 pre-Christmas

The warnings to Health Minister Stephen Donnelly came in a stark pre-Christmas message from the HSE, which said there was little “resilience” in operational plans for testing over the holiday period. Picture: Brian Lawless/PA Wire

Health Minister Stephen Donnelly was told that not a single public health department in the country was sufficiently staffed for response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

He was also warned that the department in the North-West of the country was “critically understaffed” and that Dublin’s public health team had a major gap at “clinical leadership level”.