Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour) | Oireachtas source

In the little time I have, I wish to raise several points with the Minister. The Labour Party welcomes the roadmap. We consistently stated that it is necessary. The Minister should have had the acting CMO with him when it was announced. It might have helped with the deep issues that came across in communications. I was glad that he recently projected we need to be planning for this for six to nine months. It was with that in mind that I told the Taoiseach that we need to deal with the next six months differently from the way we dealt with the previous six months. I would like the Minister to listen to these remarks and maybe pass them on to Dr. Holohan who will be returning to his post. I acknowledge Dr. Glynn for the way he stood in for Dr. Holohan. Covid came at the best time for Ireland. We had a very good spring and then it was summer. Now we face six months of bad weather in autumn and winter.

We need to give people hope. We need to prepare in two three-month projections. I am asking the Minister to set out such projections and give people hope that they will be able to enjoy Christmas, see their loved ones again and possibly travel outside the country. People need reassurance that they will be able to have a Christmas that at least resembles a normal Christmas. If all Deputies work together on the matter, would the Minister consider preparing two such projections? It is just a suggestion to give people hope. The Minister is a reasonable person. I know it is a suggestion that comes from the Opposition, but would the Minister consider preparing a plan for the weeks between now and Christmas, setting the situation out county by county, and stating that if we all pull together, we can have a Christmas when loved ones will be able to see each other. Another plan would be released in early January to bring us up to St. Patrick's Day. That would break the back of it and we would then be back into spring and summer and we would then see where we would be.

On lockdowns and changing phases, I appreciate what is stated in the roadmap, but there is no doubt that some counties are adapting. My own county has one of the lowest rates, but as I stated on local media in an attempt to show leadership, that could change pretty quickly. Will the Government give consideration to more localised lockdowns, particularly in urban areas, rather than locking down entire counties? Has modelling been done on how that could work? Dr. Glynn stated that he was concerned about the amount of traffic in Dublin, but in an interview an hour or two ago, the Minister stated there was a lesser amount of traffic. We need to make sure the messaging is consistent. My principal question regards whether more localised lockdowns could be used and whether that has been modelled.

On moving from phase to phase, the Government needs to give notice of such changes, especially when an area is moving into a more stringent phase. The hospitality and tourism industry needs more notice. Yesterday I discussed budgetary measures with the Taoiseach. We need to ensure there are budgetary measures in place to support sectors that are impacted by decisions to move to stricter phases. The hospitality and tourism sector, including those providing food and accommodation, lose out immediately when such decisions are made. We need to customise and mould the response to such circumstances.

Similarly, students have paid their fees and also paid for accommodation, and then everything suddenly moved online.

Turning to older people, my parents are both aged over 80. I have spoken about this issue before, and this situation has not been good for people in that category. We need to give those older people hope. During the phases to come, we need to give older people the capacity to socialise and have normal lives. They have given the most and paid the most taxes, but unfortunately they have the least amount of time left with us, on average. We need, however, to give those people hope and to do that we need a plan for that group of people. We also need a plan, and I want to see this in the budget, that will ensure that people with disabilities, particularly those with intellectual disabilities, who are our most vulnerable and those we should be most concerned about, are looked after during the phases of this roadmap.

I will move on to the last issues I want to raise. It has always been said that we follow the public health advice and the Government has always said that it follows the public health advice. We now know, however, about a date when the CMO wrote to the Government stating that the issue of sick pay had to be dealt with, but the Government did not follow that public health advice. The Government did not follow that advice, it is as simple as that and that is an anomaly. We are asking people to follow public health advice, so when NPHET asks the Government to do things and but it does not, I ask that the Government to please explain why it is not doing what has been recommended. I ask that because I see that as a complete contradiction.

One issue I really want to get to is the area of testing and tracing. It is obvious that we must let those therapists and specialists who are doing some of this work back to their day jobs. I understand that the Minister agrees with me. I have some ideas about how we could undertake the recruitment necessary for that roll-out, but I want to present them to the Minister personally and privately. I do not have time to do that in detail here, but I will do it separately.

In addition, we also need to look at other technologies, such as rapid testing. We need to examine how we are going to facilitate people coming in through the airports. I met some of the people who look at this testing and I have had a Covid-19 test, which has a high level of accuracy, and I had the result in ten minutes. The test was done in front of me. We need to look at what other technologies being used across Europe and the world. We must examine how can we use them if we can get them through the regulatory process quickly enough and if Dr. Cillian de Gascun and his team approve them. Might it be possible that we could model it so that we could bring such testing into some sectors, test and check the process several times and then use that method?

I state that because we need that type of technology rolled out into society to allow people to go about their business a little bit more freely. I encourage the Minister to look at other technologies. We have the analogue version of testing, but we also need to look at the digital version of testing. They may have other issues, but we need to check them all out. If we can use those technologies then they may have a positive impact on some of this roadmap, how we move through the phases and how we open up society and allow businesses to operate. I ask the Minister to please take on some of my suggestions.

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