Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Is díospóireacht faoi leith í seo. Is dúshlán faoi leith atá amach romhainn de dheasca Covid-19. Beidh muidne ag tabhairt tacaíochta don reachtaíocht atá os comhair na Dála inniu. Tá sé riachtanach gach aon tacaíocht is féidir linn a thabhairt d'oibrithe na tíre agus do chomhlachtaí na tíre, go háirithe comhlachtaí beaga, ionas go mbeidh siad in ann teacht tríd an ngéarchéim seo. Mar aon leis sin, caithfidh muid ár mbuíochas a ghabháil do phobal na tíre, atá ag déanamh a ndícheall chun cloí leis an deachomhairle atá ag teacht ón Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Tony Holohan, agus a fhoireann. Táimid buíoch de gach éinne atá ag obair sna seirbhísí sláinte agus sna seirbhísí éigeandála éagsúla. Tá obair den scoth faoi chaibidil acu agus tá pobal na tíre fíorbhuíoch díobh.

As we meet today the people of this country and much of the world continue to face real fear and uncertainty. To an extent never seen before people are subject to major personal restrictions which limit their ability to mix with others, look after family members and go to work. It has caused some of our citizens to die. We sympathise today with their loved ones in their time of sadness and distress.

The measures which we adopted last week and those we are adopting today are not ones we would even discuss in normal circumstances but this unprecedented situation has justified and will continue to justify an unprecedented response. Fundamentally nothing can be effective without the strong support of the public and a core sense of community. While it is too early to draw long-term conclusions the evidence is that the public has been responding from the first moments when this emergency became a priority some weeks ago. The figures released by the Health Service Executive last night show that for the cases diagnosed this weekend the number of people it had been in contact with was very significantly down. With very limited exceptions people in every community in this country have for the past two weeks been acting in a very responsible and generous way so that every effort is made to limit the spread of the virus. It is right that we should today thank them, acknowledge their many sacrifices and appeal to them to keep this going until we get through this period. It is also important that we acknowledge the incredible work of our public servants particularly those within our country's healthcare system. It is at times of crisis that we can truly see the breadth of the expertise and spirit which is to be found in our public institutions and services. The scale and speed of the response which we have seen simply would not have been possible without the expertise which has been developed by our public servants over many years and their deep understanding of issue which rarely ever enter public debate outside of an emergency. The national expertise contained within key units of the HSE and the professional staff of the Department of Health, the Chief Medical Officer and others have been central to building the political and public consensus for action in recent weeks. I came to know many of the personnel when working with them on previous epidemics and I and my party are extremely grateful to them for their work.

The importance of how this highly diverse Dáil has been entirely constructive at all points should also be acknowledged. The bulk of the suggestions made by my party and other parties have been made privately and there has been an approach of seeking to limit public disagreements. There is a fine balance to be struck between supporting a common message to the public and maintaining space for asking tough questions and pointing to areas where more action may be required.

This is a balance which is particularly important for us and the media to consider. Over the past five decades, an entire discipline has developed to analyse how to get the best possible response to major emergencies. One consistent lesson from this work has been that we need to make sure there remains a space for debate and for challenging messages. Everyone being on the same side does not remove the need to ask questions. In this context, I would particularly like to commend those journalists who have been persistent in raising questions which go to the heart of whether we are doing all we can or whether enough information has been shared on specific issues. We have, as a Parliament, suspended nearly all of our normal oversight functions. This has been the right thing to do in these circumstances. That is why it is especially important for us to raise issues we believe are important and for Ministers to be very direct in answering questions.

Fianna Fáil will support the passage of this legislation and will use the time for this debate to suggest ways to improve it before the tight but reasonable deadline. Several major challenges face us in our overall response to this emergency. We must limit the numbers of people who contract the virus and make sure we have the urgent care required by those who contract it. We have to address the immediate and drastic economic and social consequences of the emergency, protecting as many jobs as possible, and making sure that families and businesses can survive financially. We will have to move on to help our health system, our society and our economy to recover once the immediate challenges are met. As I have said, we support the actions which have been taken to date and which are in part underpinned by this legislation. A review published yesterday about the speed and severity of official action on the pandemic by a research team in Oxford which is linked to the World Health Organization suggests that action in Ireland is broadly in line with the recommended international practice. We believe it has been a proportionate response and that it has been properly led, primarily by the recommendations of the relevant international organisations, and that the response has had a significant impact.

All of us here no doubt have been approached by people within the health system, pointing out serious problems which they are experiencing. Today is an opportunity for those issues to be addressed directly and hopefully for urgently-needed reassurances to be provided. The latest figures show that 24% of the cases identified up to Monday night involved health staff. This is a disturbing figure which reminds us all how nurses, doctors and other healthcare professionals are on the front line in fighting this pandemic and that they are putting themselves in real danger every day. There is significant evidence of health staff lacking the personal protective equipment required to protect them from the virus. I have heard from doctors and nurses who have used their own money to purchase protection in hardware stores. We have raised this issue directly with the Government and would ask that this issue be addressed during our session today.

The ramping up of testing is clearly required if we are to come close to meeting the objective of high levels of community testing, which we agreed early last week. The revision of the criteria for testing was clearly required because of the long and rising delay in testing revealed in recent days. It is vital that we have a clearer sense of when we will reach a point of much greater availability of testing. It is true that a person showing symptoms should self-isolate when waiting for a test, but it is only when a test is completed and a positive case found that essential contact tracing can be undertaken and we can understand the true extent of the transmission of the virus.

We strongly support the adoption of a wide range of emergency financial measures to help individuals and companies. Many of these specific measures are also being implemented throughout Europe and the serious financial cost which they involve is fully justified. During the course of this debate, our spokespersons will address areas where we believe further immediate action is needed and is possible. In this context, the article published by Mario Draghi, the former President of the European Central Bank, is very important. Mario Draghi, more than any other person, was responsible for delivering the recovery from the last global financial crisis and his actions have literally saved Ireland billions in debt costs. When he speaks with urgency and passion, we should listen. According to him, Europe requires no less than wartime mobilisation of its fiscal and monetary resources. In order to prevent another and, this time, deeper recession, a new mentality is required. Aggressive zero-cost lending by banks, higher deficits with lower financing costs and new financial rules. These all form part of the actions he believes are needed immediately. Fianna Fáil has been arguing for a number of years for Europe to play a significantly increased role in helping countries during economic downturns. In this context, we welcome the fact that the Taoiseach has agreed to proposals drafted by France, Spain and Italy, calling for the immediate deployment of the European Stability Mechanism and the issuing of bonds underwritten on a cross-European Union basis.

The letter which he signed with eight other Heads of Government is a very positive step. We strongly support this proposal being pushed during the leaders' online summit. The current draft conclusions go nowhere near what is required. Now is the time to say unequivocally to reluctant states that we face a choice between common action and common failure. In Ireland, we will need to develop our own national recovery plan, to be implemented immediately when social and economic restrictions are significantly lifted. No one can be in any doubt that, in order to have the funds to pay for social supports, public services and rebuilding jobs, tough decisions will have to be made, even with a significantly higher deficit. The choices will be very different from those we were discussing until recently. We already know about the massive increase in spending which must be implemented. Less clear so far is the fall in State revenues, which will undoubtedly be severe. We need a government which can discuss and implement an urgent recovery plan. In doing this we should look at the introduction of some form of social partnership model. This should involve key stakeholders so that there can be real engagement across society and a true societal response to planning our national recovery post Covid-19. If we stay focused and abide by the guidelines of the Health Service Executive and the Chief Medical Officer, we will protect vulnerable people in our society and protect our healthcare staff. By working together, we will come through this pandemic. We must then work as hard to ensure a swift recovery when it passes.

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