Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I was at the taxi drivers' protest during Leaders' Questions, so I have not fully studied the roadmap, but I want to know what the strategy is, as do the people.

Specialists in public health, immunology, infectious diseases and so on are saying that we should be pursuing a zero Covid strategy as against what appears to be, in this plan, a roller-coaster strategy, going up and down and up and down, with nobody knowing quite where it ends. Has this committee considered a zero Covid strategy, which I stress is not about a return to lockdowns but precisely a return to normality by the putting in place of resources and systems, in particular the testing and tracing regime, such that we can really chase the virus and isolate it? This is a clear objective that the people can get behind and understand in terms of where we are heading. Connected to this is the question of permanent healthcare capacity. The capacity of testing and tracing has a lot to do with permanent recruitment. Many of those engaged in testing and tracing were redeployed from elsewhere. What is the envisaged number of staff required to be recruited permanently and engaged in testing and tracing to get to the state-of-the-art testing and tracing regime? What are the plans in terms of permanent increases in capacity for ICU and the health service generally in terms of recruitment because it is trained people who are needed?

In terms of public health restrictions, would it not be best to have in place a hotline for workers in employment who are worried about encroachment on health and safety guidelines and so on such that they have a means of reporting to the HSE and a system that is responsive?

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