Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I have been asking the Taoiseach for some time now to consider taking an all-party approach to the response to Covid. It is really regrettable that he did not take up that proposal because we found ourselves yesterday in a situation in which a momentous decision was taken yet there was no consultation whatsoever with Opposition parties or party leaders, no sharing of data and no sharing of the modelling. That is really regrettable, and I think the response has been all the weaker for it. I repeat that request, that the Taoiseach consider such an approach, because over the next six weeks not only do we all have to work together to drive down the virus but we must also use that time to devise a coherent strategy in order that we do not have a third lockdown in January. That coherent strategy has to include proper testing and tracing, an all-island approach, testing at airports and, fundamentally, it has to entail all of us working together. I ask the Taoiseach to consider now some actions he might take, that is, to broaden the decision-making around all these issues to include a wider perspective and to consider doing so now in order to improve the balance of all the issues being taken into consideration and improve the prospect of success.

When one considers, for example, the all-day deliberations last Saturday, they were quite narrowly focused both in terms of the nine or ten principals involved in that decision-making, all being male and lacking a more balanced perspective, and also that the grouping was very much focused on the health perspective but also the mathematical modelling involved. While the figures are critical to this, there is also the issue of human nature. I am not aware of anybody with any kind of expertise in behavioural psychology being involved in any of the decision-making around this.

Two areas have shown the lack of balanced decision-making. The first is with regard to the proposal on having no visitors in homes. A large number of people of all age groups live alone. It is unreasonable to say to those people that they cannot have a single visitor to their homes. There are exempted categories but let us take as an example a 25-year-old or 30-year-old living on his or her own and possibly working from home. The Taoiseach is saying to such people that they cannot have a friend, boyfriend or girlfriend in to visit. That is completely unreasonable. The Government needs to revisit that and consider the wisdom of it because it does not take account of human behaviour.

The second area is related to vulnerable workers in nursing homes and meat factories, which is highly precarious employment. It is human nature that if someone is not covered by sick leave entitlement, he or she will go to work. We will, therefore, have a repeat of what happened earlier in the year when we had disasters in both those settings. Will the Taoiseach reconsider those two issues? They are not reasonable and do not take account of human behaviour. They need amendment in all reasonableness.

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