Michael McNamara (Clare, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I endorse the words of Deputy Connolly. I agree with her that it is important the Dáil sits. Some important points were made here today and some important questions were asked. Deputy O'Reilly asked an important question about the front-line workers in our health service and about the welcome news that private consultants and private hospitals will be working in the public sector. There is an issue, which was reported in the media over the weekend, that they are being given a different contract. In fairness to the Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, he seemed to be about to answer that question before he had to leave and I completely accept that he had to leave for good reasons. This question needs to be answered, however. Are the private consultants, who are now working in private hospitals on public contracts, getting the old contract? If they are, that would be worrying because it is those doctors and nurses who are working in our public hospitals who will primarily be dealing with people with Covid-19 because it is in our public hospitals that we have ventilators and ICU beds. Therefore, doctors and nurses in public hospitals are more likely to come in contact with the virus and to bring it home to their loved ones. If they are on a different contract, and I am not saying they are, that would be shameful, to paraphrase the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Deputy Madigan. It is legitimate to ask these questions because that is what we are here to do.

We have done well as country, and the Government, of which the Minister is a member, has done very well in dealing with this. We have done well as a nation in following the medical advice of the Chief Medical Officer. Like the rest of the House, I wish him the best with his recovery. However, we are uniquely vulnerable in this country. We hear about the vulnerabilities and the death rates being much higher in Spain and Italy than in other countries. There are a variety of reasons why we have a particular vulnerability. The number of ICU beds per 100,000 people in Germany is 34 and in France it is 16. That may go some way towards explaining why their death rates are so much lower because in Spain the number of ICU beds per 100,000 people is 9.7 and in Italy it is 8.6. In Ireland, we have five ICU beds per 100,000 people so we are uniquely vulnerable, we need to take care and I urge everybody to follow the advice of the Chief Medical Officer, as has been well conveyed by the Taoiseach and the Minister for Health.

I want to return to two particular groups within the social welfare system. One of the reasons we have fewer ICU beds in Ireland is because of political choices. I supported a Government that did not invest much in health. The Government said at the time that we did not have the money to invest in health but in any event we need a functioning economy when we come out of this. One of the sectors that will hopefully contribute to that revival is the tourism sector. A lot of people will not be going on holidays abroad but hopefully we will be in a position where people can holiday at home and spend money here. We have a tourist sector in this country but many of the people who work in it are seasonal workers. Tourist enterprises across the country would now be taking on staff and opening at a low key level or getting ready to open. However, they cannot do that now because they do not know when they will open and they cannot take on the staff under the Covid-19 measures because they will not get the money from the Government for staff who were not employed on 29 February. The staff will not get the money because they were not in employment on 29 February. That is a lacuna or loophole which I pointed out to the Minister for Finance before in this Chamber and I hope it will be addressed because we need a functioning tourist sector in this country when we go back to a normal.

I worry that all business, such as it is, is being funnelled into multinationals such as Lidl, Aldi and Tesco. Garden centres are closed yet people are gardening more than ever. Where does one get the equipment or buy seeds? There is no alternative but to get it in Tesco or Lidl because the local garden centre is closed. Farmers markets, where people can buy produce which has passed through far fewer hands than food on a shelf in a large supermarket chain, are closed. Small shops are closing because people are going for one big shop. This will inevitably have a huge economic consequence but we should not increase the economic consequence by virtue of our measures. We must be very careful in what we do. We need to show that we are all in this together.

I am quite worried that a senior civil servant has ventured into constitutional matters and conveyed the Attorney General's advice when there are other advices on whether the Seanad can form. I am more worried when a senior civil servant suggests that he and the permanent government should not be answerable to the people. He works on behalf of the people. We are ridiculed and maybe we are ridiculous at times, but I take seriously my position as a representative of the people and I come here to convey their concerns to the Minister so that she may bring them back to the permanent government. That is important.

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