Carol Nolan (Laois-Offaly, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their presentation. I am from Offaly, one of the lockdown counties, and I represent Laois and Offaly. I completely disagree with the decision, and it was completely over the top to lock down three entire counties when there were clusters. We have all been told we must live with the virus but common sense must kick in very fast.

I want to take up a point raised about economic damage being done by the virus. It is not all done by the virus and in some cases it is done by very poor decision-making. In this case, economic damage is being done in my county of Offaly and Laois as well because of the very poor decision-making and the knee-jerk reaction to clusters in meat factories, which should have been handled much better. I said this earlier to representatives of organisations who attended the committee today.

This lockdown was presented to us in Laois, Offaly and Kildare as being done in the name of health. Many business people are very stressed at this time, and we all know stress affects health and causes different health problems. I would like the witnesses to take more consideration of that. Was the possibility of targeted lockdown in the specific areas affected by clusters not considered?

It has come to my attention that Tullamore and Portlaoise hospitals have remained clear of cases since the large-scale regional lockdown was announced.

I again say that it was unnecessary and I call for it to be reversed before more harm is done. I mean social and economic harm in that regard. What is happening here is totally unfair. Dr. Ronan Glynn stated earlier in the week that areas like Birr, Ferbane, Clara, Tullamore, Edenderry had cases of Covid but he did not specify the number. On one day this week, the number of cases for Laois and Offaly were not released. If there had been more than ten cases, we would know about it.

I want to know what is going on. People are becoming very frustrated. We need to exercise common sense. Was an impact study carried out before the decision was taken to lock down three counties? It was absurd nonsense and over the top. I have spoken to businesspeople who are very hurt by this. There was no consultation with any businessperson. There is much talk about us being in this together. We are not in this together. No consultation was held with businesspeople in my county. The Bridge House Hotel has 230 staff facing great uncertainty. It is unacceptable and we need to get our act together, but we need to do it in a way that protects public health and exercises common sense and consideration for people. I have consistently called for financial packages to be made available because people were wrongly punished by this decision. I hope financial packages will be made available.

Professor Staines mentioned the situation in nursing homes. I agree that not enough was done and I have raised that matter previously. What was done was reactionary. We need to be proactive in respect of nursing homes. Is Professor Staines confident that enough is being done now? What planning is being done? What policies are in place to ensure we can prevent deaths among the most vulnerable in our nursing homes?

Common sense needs to be exercised in the context of all decision-making. We have handfuls of cases rather than what is being incorrectly reported. It has done untold damage to three entire counties which was totally unnecessary.