Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I apologise for my late arrival this morning. It was due to a pile-up on the motorway. I am glad I was not involved, but it delayed my journey by some time.

I have listened carefully to the debate and I appreciate fully the importance of the issues and the need for a sound basis for the decision taken by the Government. The Minister and I have had past incarnations where we did not always sing from the same hymn sheet. That said, the situation facing the Government now is much more serious than people generally understand. The information and advice being made available must be borne in mind in the first instance.

Incidentally, I listened to reference being made to South Korea in recent days and comparisons being made to the situation here. South Korea has approximately one quarter of the testing and tracing facilities available here. That information was presented to the health committee only in recent days. People in South Korea have a different attitude, however, from what is seen to be the law and its observance. That comes, of course, from their background. We preserve our freedom and that is part of our constitutional entitlement. We are right to do that. We are now, however, imposing a second lockdown of six weeks, which might be more or less depending on what happens.

Everyone knows there have been widespread breaches of the rules, regulations and good conduct guidelines that have been set out. They are only guidelines. It would not have been necessary to have this particular shutdown were it not for the fact that large numbers of people all over the country have been disregarding the guidelines, rules, regulations and calls by the Minister and NPHET to observe social distancing and curtail social interaction by not visiting among friends and so on. I cannot for the life of me understand why people are continuously asking if it would be alright if they had a visit from so-and-so. We all have an overall responsibility and it is necessary to curtail the onward march of the virus in early days and to recognise that a shutdown damages the economy and livelihoods of people all over the country to a huge extent. Surely it must be possible to instil in the minds of everybody in the country the absolute necessity of observing social distancing and hygiene regulations both in spirit and to the letter. If we do not do that, we are likely to have a further and more expensive shutdown.

On the issue of advice, I am not sure that we as Deputies should take it upon ourselves to advise people, other than to advise strict observance of the rules and regulations to curtail the virus in the first instance. If we move over into the next phase and talk about infringement of our freedoms and democracy and so on, we get into a different situation which is not the subject of the rules and regulations necessary to curtail the virus. We have heard it said, including in this House, that this situation is not serious at all and if there were no regulations, it would be possible to manage it. We hear comparisons made with other countries. Every single other country has had either a subsequent lockdown or failures and breakdowns and they are having them as we speak. At this particular time, given the onslaught of winter and the degree to which people have failed to observe the spirit and letter of the regulations in the past few weeks, we must recognise the urgency to do everything we can individually and collectively. We must make our individual contributions to curtailing the virus in every way possible in order to protect the health of our citizens in the first instance and the economy in the second instance. It is in our own hands and those of the general public. Every single one of us, whether a public representative or an ordinary member of the public, has an urgent responsibility to further the aims, suggestions and advice of those who have the scientific evidence at their disposal and who have done well so far in predicting the levels of infections long before they arose and long before it became necessary to take emergency measures.

I would like there to be more focus in this debate on the need to comply with the health regulations as a matter of urgency and, by so doing, to remove the necessity for any further lockdowns. If everybody throughout the country had observed the regulations as much as possible over the past two months, there would be no need for a lockdown or the extension of the sunset clause because we would have achieved our objectives.

This issue has been discussed at great length - to exhaustion, in fact - at the Special Committee on Covid-19 Response and the Joint Committee on Health. Again and again the conflict arises. It is a simple and legitimate case. The country has to survive economically or we cannot pay for all the things we want to do. That is recognised. However, it is possible to achieve the same results without a lockdown, on a voluntary basis, subject to compliance with social distancing. It is not true that this has been happening. It has not. There have been widespread outbreaks of the virus at various locations throughout the country and they have been traced back to particular situations, such as house parties, celebrations and so on. There is a short and simple answer to everything. Is it safe to have these celebrations now? The answer is to ask whether the person asking the question feels it is safe. Does he or she feel it is irresponsible to proceed against the advice that is available at the present time, to have gatherings and intermingle, to ignore the regulations and, as a result, make the whole country pay the price again?

We had our own shutdown in north Kildare in the past. I do not believe it would have been necessary if all regulations had been complied with, but that is the nature of things. We have exceptions. I hope and appeal to us all - myself, my family and everybody else included - to observe the regulations voluntarily and thereby remove the necessity to have any kind of lockdown at all. I ask the public to co-operate and provide the social distancing required. They can do that.

There are a number of shops, boutiques, clothing shops and so on in the towns and villages throughout the country that can and will observe social distancing. They can ensure people wear masks and that no infections can take place as a result of one or two people entering the premises. They should be consulted to find out whether they can provide such preventative measures within their premises. I think they can and that they would be willing to do so. Like everybody else in the House, I have had numerous requests for this consideration, because these shops have not contributed to this situation and have observed and done everything they should. They closed down before and there have been no instances in their premises. In those circumstances, I ask that we look at them again with a view to finding out whether any compensation can be made to their particular circumstances, on the basis of their willingness and agreement to observe the regulations strictly and to the letter.

See this speech in context