Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I register my disappointment and annoyance that the Minister, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, has fled the Chamber again. As the Leas-Cheann Comhairle will know from being a Member of a smaller group speaking at the end, it is very annoying for the Minister always to run away. This is a serious issue throughout the country. I mean no disrespect to the Minister of State, Deputy Feighan, but the Minister, Deputy Donnelly, just disappeared and he has a habit of doing that.

This is a very frustrating situation and above all our people need hope. I compliment Deputy Lahart on his powerful speech earlier. People need hope. The demonising of students in Galway and the demonising of old people and the fear that has been peddled and portrayed on RTÉ morning, noon and night are wrong. I would love to know how much the local radio stations are getting for advertising. I will be asking questions about that. It is shocking. We seem to want people frightened, wearing masks, cowering in corners and afraid to move. It is shocking. It is the wrong way to deal with it.

Have we looked at European best practice or how issues work in Europe? Based on OECD data, Denmark with a population of 5.8 million has had 27,464 cases, about 33% less than Ireland, and 650 deaths, about 70% less than Ireland. Hungary with a population of 9.7 million, approximately twice Ireland's, has had 26,461 cases, about 67% less than Ireland, and 765 deaths, about 80% less than Ireland. Finland with a population of 5.5 million has had 9,892 cases, more than 50% less than Ireland and 345 deaths, a staggering 80% less than Ireland.

There is something wrong here. We are manipulating the figures and I have evidence of this. People have been in touch with me whose loved ones died and were recorded as Covid deaths although they had tests which were clear. We need to get honest here and level with the people. The people showed the meitheal spirit and did everything they were asked to, as did all of the GAA clubs, the community development associations and everybody else, and in that respect I want to salute again the Garda Síochána community policing units in Cahir, Clonmel and all of County Tipperary. However, mind games are being played now with the people and they are getting fed up with it or are already fed up with it because it is not good enough.

As I said, before we start clapping ourselves on the back for a job well done, we need to have a national debate on why Ireland has a Covid-19 case rate so much higher than the three countries I mentioned. Additionally, and perhaps more alarmingly, we have dramatically higher death rates than they do. What can be learned from these comments? I hope the Minister for Health and the Minister, Deputy Harris, are listening. Has the Government been in touch with these countries to find out how we can improve? Are we just cocooning here and saying we know best? We have a bad history with the HSE. The CMO, Dr. Tony Houlihan, is coming in back and I hope his wife is well but he has a bad history in the HSE with the cervical smear deaths and the death sentences perpetrated on women. We have not got a great history on a plethora of issues. Consider the waste on the national children's hospital and the scandals that went on.

We need to discuss and scrutinise these numbers. We cannot have a situation where anyone who speaks out or questions the system is shut up or sacked from senior positions, and that is what is happening. One such individual who spoke out recently was Dr. Martin Feeley, the former clinical director of the Dublin Midlands Hospital Group. He called for a debate and raised some concerns at the imposition of restrictions and the approach being taken several weeks ago. What happened to him? He was fired almost instantly. He was sacked and it is not good enough and we have to ask why. What kind of suppression are we trying to get here? Is it going to be a complete communist state? That is the way it is heading.

Sections of the community have got nothing. The elderly, the publicans and those over 66 have not got a penny in any payment whether they were bus drivers or business people or whatever. Look at our only source of help, namely, artists and the creative and music industries. They have been blackguarded and they are not getting a shilling. Now the moratorium has been lifted from the banks and they can mercilessly take those people's houses, vans and equipment. That is what is going to happen. There is something sinister going on here and something rotten in the State of Ireland.

Dr. Martin Feeley has since spoken out on the RTÉ "Prime Time" programme this week and called for a full debate on the ongoing strategy and restrictions. I support him in this call because I believe in democracy, including freedom of speech which we are suppressing too. Dr. Feeley said the cost to the community, financially and socially, is enormous, as we know, and one of the difficulties with this is we cannot measure those costs. We cannot. It is international mental health day today or suicide awareness day. I want the Minister of State to write this down because I want answers. Has the collating of figures on self-harm and suicide been stopped? I want a specific answer to that, please, and the Minister of State might take note of it. It has been asked here before and I did not get an answer. However, I can say, again according to Dr. Feeley, that most people are depressed and the country is depressed and this is why we need a debate on this. We have no debate and discourse here. There is no engagement with party and group leaders. It has stopped. The damage to our children, our youth, our mental health people and everything else is just enormous. We must have meaningful debates and answers to questions, not a Minister who floats out, especially when I come in, because I will ask the questions without fear or favour.

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