Funding to enhance and create additional safe visiting spaces in nursing homes has been announced by the Department of Health.
Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly and Minister for Older People Mary Butler say the funds will help facilitate visiting over the winter period and Christmas.
The Temporary Assistance Payment Scheme (TAPS) has been expanded on a once-off basis to allow a claim of up to €2,500 per eligible nursing home.
The fund will enable providers to create additional safe visiting spaces and enhance current visiting spaces.
Yesterday, the Irish Association of Social Workers (IASW) wrote to Mr Donnelly, describing the current restrictions as a "continued infringement" of residents' rights to family life.
It said the Government had failed to invest in visiting spaces to promote frequent safe visiting and accused it of failing to recognise safeguarding risks posed by limiting family visits.
Social workers who have been at the frontline of the pandemic said that despite low community transmission rates, there was "clear evidence of the harmful impact of separation both residents and families and the vital role families play in monitoring and reporting resident experiences of poor quality, care, neglect, or abuse."
The letter pointed out that the current nursing home guidance proposes one of the lowest levels of indoor visiting in Europe.
It said the Welsh government announced €3m in funding for visitor pods to facilitate regular visiting, as an interim measure, pending longer-term investment in visiting support.
Here, €134.5m has been made available to the TAPS scheme for 2020 and 2021, according to the Department of Health.
The scheme enables nursing homes to fund testing, infection prevention and control, providing PPE and staff. The latest funds are to be put towards visiting spaces.
In a statement the Department of Health said outdoor and window visiting provided "a valuable supplement" to appropriately managed indoor visiting however, it acknowledged outdoor options, including window visiting, were becoming more challenging in winter.
It said some nursing homes had started to take "creative steps" to develop safe, comfortable internal and external spaces to address the challenges.
It urged nursing home providers to continue to provide and invest in such measures.
Speaking to RTÉ's Prime Time earlier this month, Minister for Older People Mary Butler said a huge amount of work had been done to make nursing homes safer through testing, infection prevention and control and providing PPE.
While she did not address the issue of investment in visitor spaces she said the latest restrictions on nursing homes "is the right step".
IASW said families have highlighted multiple examples of arbitrary non-compliance with the new guidance.
It said the Government has not clarified the consequences should a service provider fail to comply with the guidance.
Concerns about the current restrictions extend beyond social workers.
In Waterford, Bernadette Philips, who ran as an Independent in the last General Election, has been campaigning for the families of nursing home residents to be given the same status as care workers for testing to enable more visits.
She said the interpretation of the new guidelines for visits to nursing homes varies.
Ms Philips said: "Some are allowing only 15 or 30 minutes, others an hour. Also not all nursing homes are allowing indoor visits. It's a human rights issue".
In its letter to Minister Donnelly, the IASW also expressed concern over the absence of social work safeguarding expertise informing the HSPC or NPHET to date.
It said: "Despite social work being identified as an essential service in the Expert Panel Report on Nursing Homes and the IASW's repeated efforts to engage with the Department of Health, consultation has not taken place."
