Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am sharing time with Deputy Connolly.

I had mixed thoughts about the motion when I was considering it earlier, what I would say in my contribution and whether I would support it. Like most Members, I believe the fight that we face against Covid-19 is vitally important.

5 o’clock

It is very important that everybody is singing from the same hymn sheet and that we go on with it.

The risk of withdrawing this statutory instrument in its entirety might be greater than the argument in favour of retaining it but the Government needs to hear what is being said and take on board the concerns. I doubt if it will do that because the unique approach to being in government in this House is to simply ignore everything, batter on and do whatever one wants, as we have seen across the board. The reality, however, is that there is confusion and a breakdown in communicating the message. The cohesion that existed for a number of months at the beginning of the crisis was because the Government was on message and the people could understand that message. I believe the people were way ahead of the Government and the political class and bought into it right away. They recognised the risks that were involved, buckled down and made sure that the measures taken were a success by their own actions. What we have seen with the introduction of this legislation by way of statutory instrument is a breakdown in that cohesion. As this goes on for some time it will become more difficult to sustain that, which is fair enough.

Some aspects of this statutory instrument do not many sense. Previous speakers said that people cannot go to a football match but they can go to a pub and watch a football match on the television while having dinner. That is mind-boggling. People know that does not make sense, but that is what has been put in the statutory instrument. How could it be safer to go into a pub-restaurant, have a dinner and watch a football match on the television than go to an open air ground to watch a game?

We also have the anomaly with underage games, which hundreds of people attend, including parents who drop their children to the ground, but when I look in there is nobody there. That kind of stuff does not make sense and the reality is that people are not buying into it.

It is very telling that this debate is happening in the House because it is highlighting the wrongness and anomalies that the Government is fostering. The Government is creating and sustaining this argument but it is losing it in terms of public safety and health, and that is very worrying.

I support the argument made by Deputy Paul Murphy on mask wearing. It is vitally important because it protects our workers across the board, in particular health workers. We have to counteract the arguments of the far right, who are fostering this. Indeed, the Government's own measures are being used to allow them to protest but it is stopping the Debenhams workers protesting using the same arguments. It does not make any sense and that has to change.

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