Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin Bay North, Labour) | Oireachtas source

If the Department knew on Tuesday that this hand sanitiser was not safe and yet children were allowed to go to school on Wednesday and Thursday, that is very serious. There needs to be some accountability for that. We are all learning as we go and doing our best. Schools are doing their absolute best to keep children safe and to remain open under very challenging circumstances. I urge Government to be as open as it can and to find the facility for questions to be asked and answered on this matter. If this is how the school system is to be managed, there will be heightened anxiety within the system and people will worry that children are not safe and that there is not a level of partnership between the Department and schools. People will worry that we are again going to move from crisis to crisis.

While I have time, I will address the Government on the wider issue of the measures that were passed today. We cannot bring people with us without a level of leadership from the political system. We cannot bring people with us if the message from Government is one of fines and Garda intervention.

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There is a small but, I fear, growing resentment organisation weaving different strands of extremist ideology, from anti-LGBT and anti-immigrant sentiment to anti-public service broadcasting sentiment, into these measures. We need to watch that and to be very careful it does not use what will be passed in the Dáil today and the Oireachtas as whole in the coming days as another weapon to try to get more soldiers to its flag. There have been political elements within these Houses who have been far too willing to give sympathy to conspiracy theorists over recent years. Examples are the anti-5G element and the promoters of the anti-vaccine view. Certain Members in this House, who shall remain unnamed, were quite happy to align themselves with the conspiracy theorists until it became unpalatable for everybody to align with certain ex-journalists and their extremism.

As a country, we are facing a difficult winter. As a society, we need to ensure the measures voted in today will not be used against any particular part of society, demographic or age group and that they will be a last resort. Fundamentally, what we are trying to say to the people is that this is all about keeping all of us safe, and the best thing we can do is stay at home and stay safe. We can suppress this virus and ensure that, when Christmas comes, we will not have an empty chair at the table. On that, the Government has the Labour Party's full support as we continue to try to do what we can in the national interest.

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