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

The people are losing faith in the ability of the Government to deal with the Covid-19 crisis. They have endured incredible hardship and they are facing a grim outlook for the foreseeable future. Despite all of the suffering and hardship they have endured, the situation, once again, is deteriorating. The message that we are all in this together, which underpinned the huge efforts that people made in the early stage of the pandemic, has been blown out the window by the Government. Day in and day out young people are being lectured about their behaviour or supposedly endangering public health because of family gatherings or other gatherings in their homes. They are being berated yet it is deemed disproportionate to ask a judge of the Supreme Court who attended a party to resign. It is one law for society and another law for those who are supposed to uphold the law.

The Government is allowing the banks once again to crawl over the backs of people who have lost their jobs and income as a result of Covid. The pandemic unemployment payment is being cut as these people face into further restrictions and the likelihood for many of their jobs and income being severely reduced for the foreseeable. At the same time, Ministers of State are given shocking pay increases on already excessive salaries and politicians are to receive pay increases. All of this does nothing to underpin the solidarity that we need to face the threat of Covid-19. The Government manages, in a PR, self-protecting way, the information about what is actually happening with Covid-19 rather than being honest with people and trusting their intelligence by giving them the information they need and a part in the debate on what type of strategy is necessary when it is very obvious that the strategy is failing.

I held a briefing last night with the zero-Covid island group which believes we are heading back towards lockdown because of the failing Government strategy, yet the Government does not want to entertain an open and honest debate about that strategy. The Government needs to change or it is going to lose the faith of the people. In fact, I think it is already losing the faith of the people.

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