Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The coronavirus is a deadly disease and a curse that has hit our country. I have always believed it is a massive danger but that we should also be doing everything in our power to bring people with us and not dictate to people. There will always be people who will break the law. We will never be able to rectify that in our political careers. Certainly, there are elements of danger but we must also take account of the facts. There have been 12% fewer deaths in the country this year than last year. I do not know what the figures were last night because I try to tune out and I advise everybody who is trying to do his or her best in the pandemic to tune out to a degree. We are on media overload and the coronavirus features in every headline and at the end of every political discussion. I am not sure whether I heard yesterday that there were three deaths. How many people died of cancer yesterday who were neglected because of the coronavirus?

I would like to know the number of people who died by suicide yesterday. God knows the number of people who have died as a result of ailments other than Covid-19. Statistics on those deaths are not released every day because if they were we would put fear into people. There has been a complete focus on Covid-19 and a complete lack of focus on other issues.

I do not agree with people being fined or with cracking the whip to keep them in line. People are asking me if it is all right to travel a few miles extra to go to a shop where they can pick up their goods a little cheaper or whatever. As politicians, we have to come up with the answers and that is not always easy. I have been inundated, as I am sure are other politicians, with questions the answer to which are difficult to find. The Minister might be able to comment on the position of college students in this regard. Are they allowed travel home? Some of them have no other choice but to stay in their accommodation near the colleges they attend and then go home at weekends or if they get a week off. Are they allowed travel home? Those college students who decided to educate themselves at home are still paying for accommodation. Unfortunately, it is still very much up in the air as to whether they can have their money refunded. I would appreciate it if the Minister touched on that matter when replying.

I am very critical of the testing and tracing system, which has been lethargic. It seems to be a case of carry on with it day by day and something might happen down the line. It is the same old system of driving up, getting tested and waiting for one's results. I presume that the samples are still being flown to Germany. There seems to be some type of game going on yet, as I told the Minister yesterday, they were able to do approximately 20 in my office in Bandon last week. People had to go to Belfast where they got immediate results. Why can we not do that here? Why is our testing system so slow? We cannot do it at the airport. When the Tánaiste, Deputy Varadkar, was Taoiseach, I asked him if rapid testing would be done at the airports and he said it was too costly. We now realise that the cost of these tests is €40 or €50. Many people who fly into this country for a holiday would love to be tested before they come here, and they would pay for it themselves, but no effort is being made to do that. It is a case of rolling on in the hope that this will rectify itself but it will not do so for quite a long time.

We will be telling people to stay in and adhere to the restrictions for the next six weeks. People are saying that we must do our best but I know what will happen when we open the doors again, so to speak. We need to ensure that people clearly understand the need for social distancing and to do their best in terms of sanitising their hands. There should be more focus on that instead of threatening them and terrifying the living daylights out of them because we will have people dying of fright.

I raise another problem. A newly married man in west Cork is trying to get a D visa for his Indonesian wife. That application has been with the Department since early March. That Irishman will now have to leave Ireland and go to the UK to try to get a family reunification visa to fly out to his wife in Indonesia. Is there any way a D visa can be sorted out after all this time? Surely to God the coronavirus is not the cause of that problem.

There is also an issue with public service cards. A man for Ballydehob applied for a public service card in March and still has not had a response. He needs that to transfer his English driving licence. Without it, he will not be able to drive here. He is the only member of the family who drives. It should not take any length of time for a person to get a public service card. We are telling people to work from home, so why are these processes taking so long?

The final issue I want to raise is to do with marts. I respect the fact that the Minister is a busy person but I would like him to listen. He can play with his phone if he wants to but the farmers of this country have been on their knees for some time. I sent an urgent letter to the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy McConalogue, to ensure that he had a clear understanding that people are losing money as a result of the prices paid for their cattle, which is €150 for a bull and €100 for a heifer. Farmers cannot take that hit. I plead with the Minister to talk to his colleague. Marts are open areas and the buyer, at least, should be allowed inside the mart. I have sent an emergency request to Deputy Cahill, the Chairman of the Committee on Agriculture and the Marine, to immediate reconvene the committee over the weekend or early next week to make sure that marts can reopen for business as farmers will not be able to take this hit. It is causing them mental stress. They cannot pay their bills. The only chance they have is to sell their cattle but they are losing money because of Covid-19. That should not have to happen. Dan McCarthy, the mart manager in Kenmare, outlined on Facebook what happened at that mart yesterday. That is happening throughout the country. The Minister is the Minister for Health. I ask him to talk to the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine and at least resolve that issue.

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