€41.5m spent on barely-used Covid self-isolation facilities and field hospitals

18/12/2021 Covid-19 Pandemic (Coronavirus), Ireland. Day 633 since the start of lockdown. Members of the public queue in the morning frost for booster jabs at the Vaccination Center in Citywest Hotel, Dublin this morning. The center was catering for 50 to 69 year olds, Health workers over 30yrs and walk-ins in an attempt to slow the spread of the Omicron Virus. Photo: Sam Boal/RollingNews.ie

Serious questions have been raised around a €41.5m spend on Covid self-isolation facilities and field hospitals that went largely unused.

Dublin's Citywest hotel, one of a number of hotels used by the HSE, had capacity to accommodate 1,138 people at any one time, yet throughout the pandemic there were never more than 300 people staying there.