Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

The great civil libertarian Stephen Donnelly is introducing a law in the Dáil to fine people for playing golf, attending a sneaky mass, swimming or going to a gym. Basically, the Government is raising the white flag. It has lost the good will of the people and now it is seeking to coerce them.

Covid-19 is a serious illness for sure, and we need to do all we can to reduce the numbers. The truth is, however, that it is not the people who have failed with regard to containing this illness, it is the Government.

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Ireland is an outlier in Europe with regard to the severity of the illness at present. The reason this is the case, and the reason the front-line battle against Covid is being placed on the shoulders of the Irish people through these restrictions, is that the Government could not get it together with regard to ICU capacity. Last week, we had a budget with €18 billion in extra spending. We have been speaking about this issue for seven months but we are still at the bottom of the pile in Europe with regard to ICU.

The other major battleground in this illness is contact tracing. At the end of the second quarter, there were 1,700 contact tracers but there are fewer than 500 contact tracers now. The Government is employing 60 contact tracers a week. At this rate of recruitment, it will take 20 full weeks just to get back to where we were in the second quarter. It is a case of "Crisis? What crisis?"

We have heard from Deputy O'Dowd about coercion. Coercion will be manna from heaven to those who purposely seek to break the guidelines. I can see the Facebook and Twitter videos already where the newly minted martyrs who just got their fines will be rallying the troops to build their own political movements. Deputy O'Dowd spoke about the gardaí on Grafton Street yesterday. They were able to do what they did under existing law. Those events did not make any argument for this Bill.

I want to speak about the fact that several amendments have been tabled. I have looked at the Sinn Féin amendment and I cannot support it. Sinn Féin spent weeks sitting on the fence over this issue. Deputy Mary Lou McDonald has been like Humpty Dumpty teetering on the fence with regard to whether she will or will not support the restrictions. Last week, in an interview with Brian Dobson, Deputy McDonald, like Humpty Dumpty, had a great fall. In fairness, poor old Deputy Cullinane had to come out with a definitive statement over the weekend. The Sinn Féin amendment tries to be all things to all people. It is a serious effort at legal fence sitting. For those against the fines, Sinn Féin can say it voted against the Government's Bill, and for those who support the fines, it simply put the decision off until next week.

I reiterate that we need to protect life and health but it will not be done with overly aggressive and damaging restrictions. These restrictions have not had the debate that is necessary. For us to understand what restrictions are appropriate in this situation, we must understand the cost of the restrictions. Their cost will be lives and ill-health. They will have a radical effect on the mental health of people throughout the country. The Government has refused point-blank over and over again to carry out the necessary research to identify the impact of the restrictions. Britain and other countries have done definitive research to understand that tens of thousands of people whose cancers will be missed, at irregular or precancerous cell stage or as cancers, will have delayed diagnoses and treatment and will experience ill-health and possibly mortality in the future. I raised in the Dáil examples of doctors who have told me their patients have had delayed diagnoses and treatment. I urge the Government to carry out research on the impact of these restrictions. Only then will we know what is balanced and appropriate.

We need to make sure we reduce the illness. I believe this can be done with balanced and fair guidelines, supporting people's incomes, allowing the Garda to engage and taking the pressure off people through having proper ICU facilities and a functioning tracking and tracing system. With regard to the news on the UCD National Virus Reference Laboratory released this morning, it is astounding that the laboratory does not have the necessary staff to be able to test next weekend or the following weekend. What does this tell us about where the locus of fault is in this crisis? It is not the fault of the people of Ireland that we are where we are today with Covid. It is the fault of the Government.

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