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

As we near the end of the third month of the Covid-19 pandemic, we must never forget to remember the great impact it has had. As of today, well over 2,000 people on this island have lost their lives. Hundreds are still fighting the virus and there is absolutely no doubt that things could have been much worse without the severe action which has been taken here and throughout the world. As I have said every week during these debates, mistakes are inevitable when we have a fast-moving and unprecedented emergency. The best responses are always defined by a willingness to listen to different voices, acknowledge problems and move quickly. Our primary focus here must remain on helping those who are suffering from the virus, continuing to suppress its spread and moving to restart social and economic life as quickly as can safely be achieved.

There is simply no question but that major errors were made in terms of the speed and impact of policies in regard to nursing homes. This is emphatically not simply an issue of the public versus the private systems because some of the biggest clusters have been in public facilities, an issue which has got lost in some of the debate to date. At a much earlier stage of the pandemic, I and a number of my party's spokespeople raised serious concerns about policy concerning nursing homes. To be honest, the answers we received did not show the level of transparency and responsiveness which should have been expected. Deputy Stephen Donnelly has shown how concerns about the lack of a proper voice for nursing homes on key committees were justified. As we heard yesterday, the facts concerning the transfer of asylum seekers across the country into a new facility, with no regard to the spreading of the virus, are developing constantly. They suggest another serious systems failure.

Tagraím do na tithe altranais. Is léir gur tharla botúin mhóra. Ní raibh na polasaithe maidir leo láidir a dhóthain. Is léir ón gcomhfhreagras idir an Roinn agus Nursing Homes Ireland go raibh siad i gcruachás agus go raibh tacaíocht á lorg acu ón tús ach bhí na húdaráis mall ag déileáil leo. Caithfimid a admháil go raibh na deacrachtaí céanna ag na tithe altranais san earnáil phoiblí agus a bhí ag na tithe altranais san earnáil phríobháideach. An rud is tábhachtaí anois ná go bhfoghlaimeofar ceachtanna ón méid a tharla go dtí seo.

However, the scale of the work still required during this emergency is such that trying to litigate past failures cannot be the priority now. What we need to know is that measures are in place to make sure that nothing like these failures could recur if and when a second wave of the virus appears before we have an effective and widely administered vaccine. The overall situation today is that Europe as a whole has entered a new phase in the response. A fortnight ago, countries of a similar size to Ireland, such as Denmark, Finland, Croatia and Austria, started reporting record lows in new infections and days with no deaths. This has happened weeks after they began to implement opening-up measures. After Germany's major reopening moves, there were reports of a rise in its virus reproduction rate, but two weeks later, it appears that the figure is well below one and is in line with Ireland's figure.

The good news we have had this week confirms that Ireland is following the increasingly well-established pattern in Europe for the containment of the virus. However, there is every reason to be concerned about whether we are handling the process of the return of social and economic activity properly. The evidence is that there remains a broad and strong compliance amongst the public when it comes to measures they have been told are essential. Eighty per cent are staying home and few in urban areas are moving more than 5 km from their homes. A serious concern, though, is that there is a very real danger of a growing division in the population between those who fear change and those who are angry about restrictions which appear not to be fully justified scientifically. Certainly, people are entitled to look at measures implemented in countries where the community spread of the virus has not spiked and ask why the situation in Ireland should be so different.

In my view, there is no remaining serious justification for the 5 km limit. The public health concern is how people behave around others, not how far they are from their home.

In fact, the research shows that this limit may be forcing people in urban areas into more crowded situations. This also applies to the 20 km rule, which is envisaged to replace the 5 km rule. I do not see a logic or scientific basis for it. I believe we must deal with that more expeditiously. Tá sé tábhachtach déileáil leis an gceist seo, mar tá sé in am deireadh a chur leis na teorainneacha 5 km agus 20 km agus gan bacadh leo. Níl aon chiall ag baint leis na teorainneacha agus srianta seo agus níl aon bhunús eolaíochta leo. Tá siad ag cur brú ar dhaoine agus tá daoine míshuaimhneach fúthu.

Equally, the current distinctions between different types of shops are, at best, arbitrary. Supermarkets have been open throughout the pandemic while implementing measures for distancing and hygiene. The figures on community spread suggest that supermarkets have not played a role in spreading the virus, where the overwhelming issue is clustering in health facilities, which has been the dominant one, nursing homes and some workplaces, such as meat factories. That is where the big clusters have been. The supermarkets are a lesson and perhaps require more research in terms of how it worked so well there.

In general, the overriding need now is to move to a situation where the focus is put on showing people how to behave once most activity is restored. We do not need empty, feel-good advertising with a single photograph and a hashtag, but a simple public education campaign. Last week, the media began carrying stories about loosening to be announced on 5 June and most people have concluded, as was the case when the loosening steps were first published, that announcements are being delayed rather than being made as soon as they are justified. The restrictions in place today in respect of most workplaces and many social activities will lose public support if they are no longer seen as being based on clear scientific evidence.

With regard to the 2 m guidance, which it has been acknowledged is not required by the science, it has been helpful but it cannot be allowed to block Ireland restarting activity that is already under way elsewhere without a negative impact. If it is true that our capacity to rapidly test, trace and isolate is now in place, we must see this reflected in the loosening of policies put in place, in part, because we had lacked this capacity. I note the Taoiseach's comments, but it appears that this is still the issue. Testing, tracing and isolating the virus is ultimately the best guarantor we have. The greater activity in the Dáil in the past few weeks must be followed by a review of restrictions so that they are not arbitrary and they move us as quickly as possible to fully restart our core democratic institutions.

As I have communicated directly to the Government, we need immediate clarity on the reopening of special needs education and its provision during July. I am aware that the Government is conscious of that and is examining it. In many countries, the limited reopening of certain classes has been achieved and there is no obvious reason for an announcement on what will happen being delayed. This has been particularly severe for parents of children with special needs and the children themselves. I have talked to teachers who have communicated through technology with them and I believe we must move heaven and earth to see if we can facilitate a return to routine, particularly for children on the autism spectrum.

During the debate on the social welfare Estimates, Fianna Fáil spokespeople set out in detail our approach to the overall economic and fiscal issues. There is no doubt that we have yet to see a proper response to critical issues. The basic strategy being followed in much of Europe is to try to kick-start a rapid recovery and to change critical fiscal benchmarks to reflect the unique nature of a rapid onset recession caused by a pandemic. The overall principle is that the pandemic response should not be allowed to be a financial millstone dragging down budgets, companies and families. It is not yet clear that this is fully understood or accepted here and there are two areas of major concern. First, there is the failure to show much greater urgency and ambition in preventing otherwise sustainable Irish businesses from suffering a terminal cash flow crisis. Sustainable growth for Ireland is utterly dependent on this sector, but short-term measures have not been followed with a credible plan to define the scale of what is needed or to push for new types of support.

Second, there is a refusal to give support to critical public companies and institutions. Due to Government policy in recent years, higher education institutions have been pushed to make up funding shortfalls through international programmes.

These have collapsed everywhere in the world and leave the universities in particular facing a shortfall of hundreds of millions of euro yet, as the Irish Independentreported yesterday, the response of the Minister for Education and Skills has been to tell them that they will have to simply suck up the deficit. This has quite rightly shocked tens of thousands of people working in a sector critical to our future. The same is being repeated in public enterprises of all types. In a world where the German Government can funnel hundreds of millions of euro into protecting one airline, the refusal to prepare a detailed plan for saving our public transport companies is inexplicable.

At the moment, commentary about what the fiscal position will be later this year, let alone in five years' time, is based on informed speculation. We do not know yet what the impact will be but, of course, we do know that there is nothing sustainable in having more than 1 million people directly and indirectly receiving wage supports from the Government. Anyone who claims that an emergency response to an unprecedented emergency should be kept in place forever is simply playing politics with a profoundly important issue. However, if we want to rebuild our economy we cannot do that unless we act now to prevent smaller businesses going bankrupt and put in place a proper rescue package for our public companies and institutions.

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