Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their attendance. There have been a lot of illogical situations in terms of our handling of the Covid-19 crisis. I earlier mentioned that we set out to flatten the curve, and we did. Why is NPHET victimising one particular segment of our economy, namely, pubs, without any evidence? Who came up with the guideline that if a person has a €9 meal, he or she is safe for 90 minutes? It is totally unfair.

On the return to school, many of our national and secondary schools reopened today and leaving certificate students will get their results this weekend. Our children have been through an awful time and we all want them to return to school. How is it logical that national and second level students up to 18 years of age can sit together in a classroom for six or seven hours while the Dáil is required to meet in the Convention Centre at an enormous cost of €25,000 plus per day? I have had this debate with the Ceann Comhairle and the Business Committee. We have asked that the Dáil be allowed to return to its Chamber. The advice is that we could do so at a 1 m distance but NPHET is insisting on a 2 m distance. Where is the logic in that? There are many things that do not make any sense. I wish Dr. Holohan and his family well. I understand that some time ago his advice was that mask wearing was of little benefit and that there were question marks around it, yet we are now enforcing the wearing of masks. There is no logic to what is being done, from start to finish.

I know of a young man who was out last Saturday night fortnight and met a person who had attended a party the previous night at which there were a number of people who were infected with the virus. I am speaking about a cluster area in Cashel in Tipperary. The young man rang his employer on Monday morning and his employer told him to stay at home and to go to his doctor to get a referral for a test. He was tested on Monday at 4 p.m. but he did not get the results until 5 p.m. on Friday. As I said, the area in question is a hotspot. This young man was not asked for details in regard to the other people at the party and, as such, there was no contact tracing. The process is a mess in many ways.

Reference was made to a specific number of tests and contact tracing. It is not happening. The system is not fit for purpose. The mixed messages are unfair. It was unfair that the young man I mentioned had to miss a week's work and it was unfair to his employer as well. There was no follow-up, by telephone or otherwise, in regard to the people he met who were infected. There are some very dubious issues around the process. We need clarity but we are not getting it. We also need a roadmap in regard to what we are aiming to do. I know we are aiming to beat the virus. Flattening the curve was the big objective and we did that.

I support an earlier speaker who said that we have taken the focus way from hand-washing and hygiene to mask-wearing. Mask-wearing was supposed to be not safe. It was frowned upon at the start. Why do we keep changing the goalposts? How are we to get the public to keep supporting us in this situation, including the continued lockdown of pubs? I thank the Minister, Deputy Donnelly, for not imposing a lockdown on Tipperary, as happened in Kildare and so on. We cannot afford it. It cannot be sustained.

As I said, there are too many mixed messages and illogical decisions, including, as I mentioned earlier, the €9 sandwich which allows a person to drink in a pub while wet pubs cannot open. That does not make any sense. I ask the witnesses to respond to as many of my questions as they can and to reply to me in writing in regard to those questions they cannot answer today.