Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I would be very grateful if the Taoiseach would respond to me in writing because I have too many things to highlight. There are many reports and surveys indicating that Kerry will be worse affected by the pandemic than any other county in the country. Indeed, I do not need to see any of those reports because I know of it first hand. We see that there is nothing at all happening in towns like Killarney, Dingle, Cahersiveen and Castleisland.

In relation to seasonal workers, it is very unfair that they were not recognised. If the lockdown had not happened for another two weeks, all of them would have been back and would now be getting the Covid-19 payment. Bus workers, hotel workers and many others have concerns. Indeed, in the past two days, I have had over 700 emails from bus drivers and others concerned about the transport industry in Kerry. It is shambolic the way they have been treated. We are seeing yards of buses, none of which are moving, and there is no payment for any driver. Their stamps are gone and they have been totally left behind. I am asking the Taoiseach to address that matter.

My next question concerns the social distancing requirement and whether it should be 1 m or 2 m. In order to get going and give some kind of assistance to the tourism industry, I am asking the Taoiseach to reduce it to 1 m. Other countries, like France, Austria, Norway, Sweden and Finland, have all applied the 1 m restriction. The World Health Organization, WHO, to which the Government lately gave €9 million for its advice and assistance, is recommending distancing of 1 m or more. One metre is sufficient in rural places. If we do not apply that smaller distancing requirement, and the longer we leave businesses in the hotel and tourism industry without releasing them and allowing them to get going and avail of the national tourists who come down from Dublin and all around the country to towns like Killarney and other places in Kerry, the less hope there is of those businesses ever again opening. That is probably what will happen.

I have a question regarding the young drivers waiting for a driving test.

Is it possible to give them a temporary amnesty? There are thousands of them. If the Taoiseach cannot do that, surely the schools of motoring or the driving instructors could be asked to put a division between the instructor and the learner driver to allow the learner to do the lessons or the test. After the lessons are completed, and most of the learners have completed them, they could be allowed to do the test in the driving instructor's car.

I am glad other Deputies raised the issue of funerals and churches. I sympathise with all the people and families who have lost loved ones during the pandemic and who did not have a proper funeral. It makes no sense that only ten people can go into the massive cathedral in Killarney. There should be some other way of deciding. I would support it being looked at again.

With regard to nursing homes, I call on the Taoiseach to explain to the people of Ireland why people who toiled and worked so hard all their lives had to die alone with no member of their families with them. As somebody who lost someone very dear to me in the last few years, I know what it means for the person who is dying. Those people surely could not understand why there was nobody with them.

I also call on the Taoiseach to look at what has happened with the direct provision centre in Cahersiveen, all the inconsistencies and the things that should have happened. It is clear now that the opening of a direct provision centre there should never have happened. The HSE did not agree with it, the people of Cahersiveen did not agree with it and the residents in the direct provision centre do not agree with it. I ask the Taoiseach to examine this, to close it down for once and for all and to give the people of Cahersiveen and the residents fair play.

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