Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

The Taoiseach made a frightening prediction last week that 15,000 people would contract this disease by the end of the month. Then on Thursday, the Tánaiste added to that by raising the possibility that tens of thousands of people could die. Since then, the country has pulled together and people have followed the advice. The data show that although the disease is still spreading, the speed of that spread has slowed down somewhat. The changes in public behaviour have just bought us some time. Doctors are saying clearly that people have to save one another by avoiding the disease because there is no health system that could cope with mass infection. It is up to us.

The Parliamentary Budget Office estimates that this week's and last week's emergency laws will cost a total of €6.7 billion. Political parties need to work together but we still need some scrutiny of such a massive project in the coming weeks. During the coming weeks, we will not have the time to reshuffle the Cabinet but we will have time to agree a way to provide democratic input from all parties into the decision-making of this Government. The Green Party is supporting this Bill but is also seeking to improve it. The Bill makes it easier to add retired medical practitioners back onto the medical register but can we also consider faster and wider recognition of overseas qualifications? We should consider broadening the power to prescribe. Optometrists could prescribe antibiotic eye drops, for example, without having to distract GPs. We need to find every way possible to broaden the power of prescription in order to reduce the burden on GPs. We also need to protect our dentists. They are in close contact with patients and they fear for their safety. Dentists generate a large volume of aerosols during normal practice, which heighten the risk of contracting of this virus. They are at a high risk and I suggest that dentists be advised to stop all elective work, while emergency work could continue with the appropriate personal protective equipment, to protect dentists and patients alike.

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