The HSE considered allowing nurses to give the Last Rites to patients dying from Covid-19 as emergency preparations were made for a surge in deaths, internal documents reveal.

Minutes of a meeting of the Covid-19 Mass Fatalities Expert Group show the HSE considered the move after a discussion with its Chaplaincy Council on the need to avoid contact in clinical settings.

The records, released under Freedom of Information and marked “confidential”, state that the HSE and the Chaplaincy Council discussed “the possibility of nurses to be decreed to give Last Rites in some circumstances”.

In a statement, the HSE said it “worked in close collaboration with chaplains and a range of faiths during the Covid-19 pandemic”.

Despite the issue being discussed at the high-level meeting of the Covid-19 Mass Fatalities Expert Group, “nursing staff were not trained in the practice of giving Last Rites”, it added.