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

I have listened with interest to the debate on this Bill, which follows on from many similar debates in recent months. Lest Opposition Members feel that the Government is repressive and not conscious of the need to observe civil liberties, I assure them that the reverse is the case. Members of the Government are as alert as anybody else in this House to the fact that it is unfortunate that we must move to a situation of restricting people's rights and movements because of the challenge of the pandemic. There is no central ground in this. We either take the virus on or we do not. In the first instance, the Government was hoping that an appeal to the patriotism of the general public would work. It did work, up to a point. However, the Government is now being blamed for not succeeding in defeating the virus. There is a complete and absolute failure to recognise that other governments all over the globe have been in the same situation and faced the same problems with no better results than we have had here or, in some cases, very much worse results.

There are a number of facts that everybody needs to acknowledge. One of those facts is that some 50% of people in this country strongly support every step that has been taken to restrict the forward march of the virus, notwithstanding the huge sacrifices they have required. However, there are other people who do not feel the same way. The graph we saw detailing how one person infected 54 other people as a result of that individual's irresponsible behaviour was sufficient illustration of what we need to do. I am sure everybody in this House has made sacrifices. I am sure every colleague has restricted his or her movements to the best of his or her ability by avoiding crowds and other interactions, following best hand hygiene practice and so on. We all hope that such behaviours will enable us to succeed in controlling the spread of the virus.

Some of those who say the testing and tracing system is broken down hold out the example of South Korea as a utopia in this regard. That country has approximately one quarter of the resources we have in dealing with the virus. The difference is that people there have a different attitude to the law and have embraced public health recommendations. I understand why we are a bit more suspicious in this country but, if we are going to defeat the virus, we will have to make more sacrifices. If we do not do what is necessary in the next month or six weeks, we will have another problem which nobody has mentioned yet in this debate. That problem is the possibility that, at some stage, the front-line workers, who have been in the battlefield day and night, 24-7, week after week for the past seven or eight months, will get very seriously brassed off that they are having to make those sacrifices and take those risks on a daily basis while other people feel that there should be no restrictions at all and are breaching the rules in ways that could take us back to where we were at the start of the pandemic. The actions of those individuals could lead to a situation where a duty is once again thrust upon emergency services staff to continue working in the face of insurmountable odds. I try my best, as I am sure does everybody in this House, to observe the rules and regulations. I am not going to identify any particular group that is encouraging the type of behaviour I referred to, because that is not my job. However, I cannot understand how certain groups of people could converge together over the past two months, in whatever mode or mood, without knowing what the consequences of such activity could be. Those consequences are now showing up and accelerating, which was always going to be the case.

Much has been said, in another effort to blame the Government for what has happened, about the lack of investment in health services in this country. Whether or not it suits one's position, the reality is that Ireland has the second or third highest spend on health services in the OECD. That is a well-documented fact. There is no point in saying it is not true or one does not agree it is the case. It is a fact. It may be the case that we are not spending the money in the right way or responding in the right way to the crisis but the fact remains that the money is being made available. This country has invested something like €18 billion in attempting to combat this particular threat. The pandemic is the single biggest threat that this country, any other European country or any country globally has had to face in the past 150 years. Sadly, the virus keeps coming back and people keep pointing the finger in one direction or another and heaping blame on somebody else.

The simple fact we must all recognise is that everybody has a role to play and a responsibility to combat the spread of the virus. I have repeatedly said, both within my own party and outside it, that we must appeal to people's patriotism. People must ask themselves, whatever they are proposing to do, whether a particular action of theirs will create a possibility of the virus being transferred, either to them by somebody else or from them to another person. That is a serious question. If we continue to involve ourselves in congregations - many people are doing so, notwithstanding the circumstances in which we are operating - we must ask ourselves whether that is contributing to the defeat of the virus or otherwise. We all have a choice in how we respond to the threat. My belief is that we could voluntarily achieve the same results as the restrictions and financial supports are designed to achieve simply by voluntarily adopting the measures we have been advised to follow by all the health experts who have given of their time, energy and experience.

At this stage it falls to us, the population in general, rather than any social group or class group, to observe the guidelines. By doing so, we will be able to bring the virus to a halt and give ourselves space and time. If we do not, we will see the spectacle of bodies building up in hospitals and morgues and being carted across the country as happened in central Europe at the beginning of the pandemic.

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