Dáil debates

Thursday, 2 April 2020

Health (Covid-19): Statements

 

3:45 pm

Photo of Richard Boyd BarrettRichard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

On behalf of People Before Profit, I pass on my deepest sympathies and condolences to anybody who has lost a loved one, whether in this country or elsewhere. We have to do absolutely everything we can to minimise further tragedies of that sort as quickly as possible. I also want to pay tribute to health workers and other essential workers who are providing the services and protection we need in fighting this virus, and to all of those who are staying at home. That will become an increasingly difficult thing for people to do but in doing so, they are protecting public health and helping to fight the transmission of the virus.

I want to comment on the debate about the appropriateness of the Dáil meeting. The Government has said it is acting on public health advice in most of its decisions. The list of essential workers, I assume, was drawn up by the national public health emergency team. It included public representatives and journalists as well as many of the other front-line workers. There is a very good reason for that. Public health medicine is unequivocal about the need for decisions in situations like this to be taken in an open and transparent manner and for the public to have the maximum amount of faith in the decision-makers as we move through the crisis. Democracy is not an optional extra in that; it is critical to maintaining public compliance and public confidence in the decisions. It is worth saying that intellectual studies on this matter have made it clear that the countries that did best in previous pandemics are those that are the most open and the most democratic, not those that are most repressive. That is what the intellectual and scientific evidence shows. That is why it is critical that the Dáil sits, whether remotely or in a different venue or whatever. It is essential because Deputies are being contacted by people in direct provision centres who are terrified because they cannot adhere to social distancing. Urgent action is needed. People in homeless hubs and hostels or in overcrowded family conditions impacted by the housing crisis cannot do social distancing. If they become symptomatic, they cannot self-isolate. Therefore it is an urgent matter to air those messages and concerns as they come in and for us collectively to do something quickly.

For example, we need to get hold of empty apartment blocks in every area in order to provide suitable accommodation such that people are not living in overcrowded conditions. Last weekend, I was contacted by a teacher who works for an English as a foreign language school. Some of its 700 students contacted him because they cannot get the Covid-19 payment as they are not working although they have work-study visas. They came here this year and many of them are living in desperately overcrowded conditions with people who are symptomatic but cannot self-isolate. They are scared and have no money. Deputies must be able to raise such concerns.

I have before me a list of 40 questions drawn up by doctors and scientists, some of whom are working on Covid-19 research. The questions address issues of concern to them, such as reagents, shower facilities for health workers, the testing regime and so on. I have been unable to put those questions to the Government because we do not have a system for so doing. It is critical for Members to be able to ask such questions in the interest of public health. It is critical that the House be able to scrutinise the arrangement with private hospitals whereby, rightly, their capacities have been taken under public control. However, we do not know precisely how that will be managed or how much it will cost. The Government has made pronouncements on it being a temporary arrangement.

There are many other issues that I do not have time to raise, such as what is happening in nursing homes and so on. It is critical that Members have the opportunity to ask the Taoiseach and Ministers these questions in the interests of public health and working together to defeat Covid-19.

Comments

No comments

Log in or join to post a public comment.