Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

The fallout from the sacking of Deputy Cowen as Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine inevitably switches the spotlight to the Taoiseach himself. The obvious question involves what occurred between 2 p.m. and 9 p.m. yesterday, because there was certainly no indication in the Taoiseach's responses at Leaders' Questions that it would transpire as it did. While the incident took place in 2016 it is recent news to most of us, including the Taoiseach. It originally came into the public domain on 3 July. It may well have been in the Irish Independentbefore John Mooney's first story in The Sunday Times. Not only was it in the former Minister's interest and in the public interest that he fully address the outstanding issues, but it was also in the new Government's interest that he did so. There is no doubt that this has been a bad start for the Government at a time when the focus of attention should be on the risks from Covid, on safely restarting our society and economy and on building leadership and trust. It is early days but it is difficult to know what to make of the new Government that the Taoiseach leads. There is no doubt that people are busy, as our new Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Foley, has told us, but does that mean the schools will reopen in September? The Government is busy with the July stimulus and hopefully it will be well targeted. It has also been busy limiting Opposition voices with the new arrangements in this House.

The indecision around flights into this country from areas where Covid-19 is reproducing rapidly, particularly the US, is the biggest cause of public concern at the moment. Quite frankly, it is being viewed with disbelief. I have heard several Ministers minimising the risk by telling us that just 250 people are coming into the country from the US on a daily basis and some are self-isolating. However, 250 people per day is 2,500 people over ten days. They are coming from what is the epicentre of the virus at the moment. The people of the US are free to choose whoever they wish to lead them but we can all see how the virus is being handled there. As I have said, it is the epicentre of the pandemic. The seriousness of it is being minimised there with tragic consequences. We have to factor that into the public's understanding of this matter. That is why the US is such a high-risk country. On several occasions, our people have been ahead of us on this issue and they are ahead of us again. Despite the huge Ryanair marketing campaign for cheap flights, people have largely heeded the warning to restrict themselves to essential travel and are choosing to holiday at home.

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