Matt Shanahan (Waterford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I support the comments of Deputy Daly regarding University Hospital Kerry, a facility I know well. It suffers from significant deficits. These are largely attributable to the inadequacies of the South/Southwest Hospital Group administration, to which University Hospital Waterford is also connected, unfortunately.

The proposed legislation signals our arrival at a difficult juncture. The questions now are whether we can live life as somewhat normal and whether society can function while we attempt to keep coronavirus at bay. Since the virus arrived in Ireland in February, we have learned of the harsh dangers it presents, especially to our most vulnerable, including the elderly, those with underlying conditions and those who must undertake other medical treatments. Beyond these patient streams, the virus has the potential to cause significant disease, although, thankfully, the severity and duration of illness seem to be considerably lower. We have learned about the ease with which this disease is transmitted. We can defend against this in hospitals with strict infection control protocols and in general in society through countermeasures involving hygiene standards and social distancing. Social distancing has proved most effective but, unfortunately, has become the more difficult discipline to adhere to and enforce publicly. That is because, for many, it is enforcing isolation and loneliness, causing businesses to fail and creating social anxiety. For many, it is becoming overwhelming because they see the trajectory of the disease is going in the wrong direction.

In attempting to drive home a Covid prevention message, our national media speak of the horrors of emergency rooms overflowing, first responders unable to deal with acute Covid distress and the potential for hospital morgues to require additional refrigeration capacity in the form of 40-foot containers parked on hospital grounds. For many, this narrative no longer holds substance given the experience in recent months of a lower median age of those infected and lower numbers of deaths. Many outside the vulnerable groupings whose members have contracted the illness have sufficiently overcome the disease, recuperating at home and with minimal discomfort. The recent rise in the Covid-19 transmission trend is directly related to people's not unfounded assumption that the disease is not a killer for their age group. The counter-narrative is that Covid is a significant disease for certain population groups only and, therefore, it is asked why all people in the country have to take the medicine that only some require and why their lives should be so disrupted with further national lockdown initiatives.

The job of new emergency legislation should first be to set out clearly the medical and clinical case for Covid restrictions, that is, that rampant disease will affect every member of the population through either social, medical or economic deprivation. The message that we are all in this together should be changed because is not correct in the minds of many. We need to bring people with us in national health protection, and we should be communicating that we are clearly not all in the medical emergency together but that, economically and socially, we can exit this pandemic together successfully only by sticking together, working together and working in sacrifice and for one another and for the good of all.

Regarding the increasing rate of Covid transmission, significant actions as part of the State's response are somewhat responsible for the ascending rate of disease spread. Members of the Regional Group raised the issue of masks in this House many months ago. NPHET did not endorse their use for months afterwards. I raised the issue of antigen testing with NPHET over four months ago but, blindly, it would not consider it until last week when it saw the trend regarding the disease vector. These circumstances must not continue. We need NPHET to engage with industry and medical leads. Most of all, we need transparency in the way we are fighting the disease and resourcing our efforts. We need sufficient tracking and tracing and, most of all, we need political oversight and political responsibility to be borne by all in this House. When we talk about house parties, all Deputies need to get their own House in order, get on top of things and ensure this lockdown is the last that they impose on the population.

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