Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

Deputy Brendan Smith was in the Chamber a few seconds ago. He mentioned that there should be cross-Border co-operation on Covid-19. We have been saying that for months and still there is absolutely no cross-Border co-operation on Covid-19. I have asked the Taoiseach and the Minister for Foreign Affairs where the locus of co-operation is. Is it within the Dáil, the Department of the Taoiseach or the Department of Foreign Affairs? Is it in the Department of Health? Is there a secretariat? Is there any structure for co-operation, North and South, on Covid-19? I am still to get an answer in that regard.

Covid-19 is obviously a significant threat to life and health and we must do our best to keep the numbers down. We also need balance because the restrictions can also be a threat to life and health throughout the country. There needs to be a balance between the two. Will the Minister of State explain why Ireland is currently an outlier in terms of Covid-19 restrictions? Accordingly to the government response stringency index produced by Our World in Data, Ireland is the second most restricted country in the EU when it comes to Covid-19. That is before level 5 is put in place. A comparative analysis between European countries has found Ireland is mid-ranking for incidence of Covid-19. Many other countries with higher rates of Covid than Ireland have far fewer restrictions in place.

The World Health Organization has stated that restrictions are necessary to protect a health service that is under pressure. Last night, the Minister for Health, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, stated on "Claire Byrne Live" that there is no crisis in the health service at the moment. Indeed, consultants in hospitals throughout the country have called openly for people to come to the hospitals because we have a wave of hospital avoidance throughout the country. People are too fearful to answer the invitations they have received for treatment.

There are three countries in the world where church services are currently cancelled, North Korea, Saudi Arabia and this State, the Republic of Ireland. Restaurants, pubs and retail outlets are functioning in many other countries throughout Europe safely and in a social distanced way.

There is an extraordinary cost to this. I have asked the National Public Health Emergency Team, the HSE and the Government to research the costs in the areas of cancer care, heart disease, stroke and mental health. What is the level of mortality and morbidity as a result of these restrictions? No one from these organisations has told me that they have carried out any research. In many ways, the information is missing from half of the equation and decisions are being made blind.

After seven months of talking about Covid-19 and €18 billion in the budget in recent weeks, we still have one of the lowest levels of hospital intensive care beds in the European Union. The front line of Covid-19 is the people because the Government has failed to invest the money needed to ensure we have a health service that is able to protect our society.

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