Dáil debates

Wednesday, 27 May 2020

Covid-19 (Taoiseach): Statements

 

3:15 pm

Photo of Mattie McGrathMattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I spoke here last week. It is a shambolic situation that I am speaking to the Taoiseach's empty seat while he is in another part of the building. We had this debate at the meeting of the Business Committee yesterday and again this morning. We called a vote on the matter but, unfortunately, people who objected to the proposal decided to vote with the Government and to allow the Taoiseach to carry on with his nonsense. There is clear scientific and medical evidence that there is no issue with spending two hours in this massive Chamber. The Taoiseach is just hiding but there is no place for the Taoiseach to hide and there will be nowhere to hide when the real truth about all of this is found out.

I asked him about our peacekeepers last week. They are still out there. We should be thankful that they have now got a date for their return, which is 29 June. These 300 gallant men and women and their families at home are suffering. I hope that date is honoured and that there will not be another shambolic excuse given.

I also mentioned the issue of nursing homes last week. Different doctors have resigned from the Medical Council and other bodies. They have better knowledge of this issue than I do. What happened was nothing short of national sabotage. I hope there will an inquiry into what happened and that people will be held accountable. As I mentioned last week, people who got oxygen tanks had to give them back. Tanks that were nearly empty were taken away and people were left without oxygen. Let us think about that. People were just left without oxygen. What happened to our young people and our people aged over 70 is shocking. There is a cohort of people aged over 66 who are working and sustaining many families and communities and who are not getting a bob in payment.

Mention was made of the Covid payment. I argued that the payment should be made pro ratabased on what people had earned in the month or four weeks prior but I was told that could not be done. We would not have the problems we now have had that been done. I do not agree with what Members on the left are saying, which is that we are trying to be mean; we are not. Many people are not getting enough but it is clearly unsustainable to give €350 to people who were earning €80 or €100.

The issue of the mental health of our young people and our old people is just shocking. On the issue of the 2 m distance, a very close relative of mine visited a hospital in Cork last week and had to sit in huge queue in a waiting room separated from others by only 1 m. Who is codding whom? Even the WHO, about which we hear so much, does not recommend 2 m.

I also want to ask the Taoiseach about the carry on with the private hospitals. I have a very sad letter from a woman who has given me permission to use her sister's details. She states:

For the last 45 years, my sister has paid for private health insurance to cover all her hospital stays. She has never asked the general taxpayer to pay for any of her medical treatment. She is now 66 years of age and needs urgent surgery for a stage 3 prolapse, which could go to emergency stage 4 at any time. Her consultant has clearly stated he cannot operate on her until July at the earliest, or even into September. Each day the surgery is delayed means that further damage is happening inside her body. Therefore, in order to repair the damage, she will require much more extensive surgery at the end of the time.

There are many thousands of people like her. It is totally unfair. This woman supplied me with figures, for which I thank her. They relate to the number of beds occupied in Cork hospitals on 14 April, 20 April, 28 April and 7 May.

In the Bon Secours Hospital, which has 300 beds, the numbers occupied on those dates were 30, 36, 89 and 103, respectively. This means that 200 beds or more were empty at all times. That is shocking. In the Mater Private Hospital, which has a capacity of 102, six beds were occupied the first week, and the figures for the following weeks were 25, 37 and 23, respectively. It is an absolute shame. We had to take over the private hospitals and I supported that, but for how long? When are we going to give them back and allow surgery of all kinds to go ahead for people? There are no cervical cancer smear tests taking place. There are no tests of any kind happening. Many people with serious diagnoses will require treatment and everything else.

I said to the Taoiseach last week that there was a con element or large con element in this. I am still saying it. I am glad to see today that in Spain, lawyers are challenging the government there, and the unelected officials who are wielding all the power, to prove the evidence. I am asking the Taoiseach to give us the evidence. We cannot get the minutes of meetings. Give us the scientific evidence which we are not being given. The officials in Spain will be called to account and I hope they are called to account here too. Big business is flourishing and all those companies can open, but the same is not true for small businessmen - na daoine beaga - who include ordinary people such as shopkeepers, taxi drivers and all those small business owners. What is going on is that we seem to be wiping all those people out and letting the big companies flourish. We must let small businesses trade, whether they are selling a bit of homeware or whatever else. Let us support the small businessmen who employ from one to ten people or one to 50 people. There is a con element going on here and the sooner we realise it and the sooner people stand up to it and question it, the better.

We must have accountability in this Parliament, not the Taoiseach fleeing to some other building because he cannot face us here. I hate talking to faceless people. I talk to get answers for the people from Tipperary on whose behalf I have the privilege of having been elected. We are not getting answers and I want those answers. I do not know what is wrong with Deputy Feighan.

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