Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I wish to speak on the impact the ongoing lockdown is having on young people and children. All of us recognise that back in March it was absolutely necessary, in order to protect elderly people and the vulnerable, to introduce emergency measures. When we saw what was happening in Spain and Italy, it was imperative that we introduced measures for the purposes of ensuring that our intensive care units were not overrun like those in the countries to which I refer. It would have been reckless for us not to do so. Those regulations and the lockdown have had a significant impact on and caused inconvenience to people..

We have been prepared to go along with it, however, because it is for the common good. Nevertheless, there is one category of people who have not been given sufficient attention for the sacrifices they have made, namely, children and young people. All of them have had their social, personal, educational and sporting development affected by the lockdown and regulations. They have behaved selflessly and have been prepared to go along with the measures. They have subordinated their own interests to the interests of the common good and those who are vulnerable in society, particularly the elderly. We need to recognise that and the role played by young people and children.

The Government and the Minister need to place greater emphasis on trying to reinstate some normality into the lives of children and young people. We need to get a plan in place in order that they will know when they are going to go back to school and to playing or exercising with their friends. We have done well in reducing the spread of the virus in this country. We have flattened the curve but we will not eliminate the virus until such time as we have a vaccine, which will take a number of years. We cannot indefinitely put our children's and young people's lives, or the lives of others, at a standstill while we await the development of a vaccine. We need to learn to live with the virus. That means we need to have a proper, efficient and speedy testing system in place. It is the only way in which we can live with the virus. With such a system in place, people could be tested and know within 24 hours whether they are positive or negative. Those who are negative can go about their ordinary lives without any inconvenience, while those who test positive will have to isolate themselves for a period. That is how countries that have handled the pandemic well have succeeded. Unfortunately, to date the Government has not handled the issue of testing well. We need to ensure that our testing is much more efficient and speedy in order that we can get our children and young people back to normality and back among their friends.

I would have liked, if I had more time, to talk about the particular issues of children in direct provision, who are greatly affected, and young women who have been smuggled into the country and are suffering as a result of being part of the sex industry. I shudder to think how those women are coping now.

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