Over 1000 nursing home staff were unavailable to work due to COVID-19, according to a survey.
The snapshot by Nursing Homes Ireland taken on Wednesday also found that 2 in 5 homes did not have a sufficient supply of facemasks.
It comes after it was revealed 23 people died in a nursing home in Dundalk.
Executive Director Mervyn Taylor says there needs to be changes into the care of older people in Ireland.
"We owe them, and we should respect their memory and not indulge in shroud waving.
"We need to respect their memory by actually becoming doubly determined to develop a proper integrated system of support and care for older people.'
