Health Minister Simon Harris is to meet officials on Monday to arrange for new measures to tackle COVID-19 in nursing homes.

It comes as COVID-19 clusters were reported in three residential settings and 17 nursing homes, which accounts for 22% of the total number of  clusters/outbreaks in Ireland.

That is according to data prepared by the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) on Saturday.

On Sunday 10 more people died in of the illness here, and there were 200 further cases.

The median age of the deaths is 77.

In a message on Twitter, Minister Harris said he was very worried about the prevalence of the illness among older people.

An update on Sunday evening on #coronavirus #Covid19 after another busy day of activity in the @roinnslainte https://t.co/nJfchosAuG

— Simon Harris TD (@SimonHarrisTD) March 29, 2020

Tadhg Daly from Nursing Home Ireland earlier told Newstalk Breakfast they need more funding.

"We're meeting Minister Harris today on foot of our submission to the minister over the last number of weeks.

"We've been working very closely with officials in the department and the HSE.

"I suppose there's three issues in essence today which I'll be speaking the minister on.

"One is the is issue of equipment and PPE, the second is the issue of staffing and the third will be that of appropriate funding of the sector."

"The issue on funding here is that there has been significant increase in costs to maintain service continuity.

"What you have is you have increased staffing both in terms of hours right across the sector, you have care assistants, nurses, you've extra cleaning staff, extra administration staff, extra activity coordinators.

"And then we're also seeing an increased cost of products and services at this time".

Age Action has called on the minister and the Health Service Executive (HSE) to ensure the protection of those living in large congregated settings.

Paddy Connolly,the CEO of Age Action, said: "With the curtailment of HIQA inspections and family visits during the crisis and the severe shortage of protective equipment, Age Action is concerned that these centres are also prioritised at this time.

"Age Action is calling on the minister for health and the HSE to ensure that these settings get the appropriate supports and protective equipment they need and that family members are informed of the measures being taken".

"Large congregated settings have been tolerated for too long in Ireland and should have been de-congregated years ago.

"The group nature, shared eating areas and campus-type setting means those living in them are at grave risk from COVID-19".

According to HIQA, there are 2,900 people with a disability living in congregated settings - many of whom are older.

The HSE reported that there were 732 people over the age of 60 living in a congregated setting in 2018, of those 262 were over the age of 70.

Mr Connolly added: "It is the most de-valued members of our community who inevitably will suffer the most in this crisis."