Duncan Smith (Dublin Fingal, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the clerk to the committee and the secretariat for all the support that they gave us. It was my first committee in this House and it was a learning and hothousing experience for me. I thank the Chair of the committee, Deputy McNamara, who chaired the meetings throughout the committee's lifetime. It was very fair. We operated under tight time and speaking constraints. Not only did members respect that but if people were deep into questioning, the Chair was good at allowing time when needed and pulling it back. None of us, however experienced Deputies may be, have experienced a committee that operated under such tight time constraints.

I will pick up on the story that Deputy O'Reilly told about Balseskin direct provision centre. It is partly under the Minister for Health's remit and partly under that of the Minister for Justice. That matter was brought to my attention today. I rang the centre and said I am a Deputy for the area, said that I understood there was a gentleman outside who was in distress, and asked how I could help. I was not adversarial because I knew there was a gentleman in a crisis situation outside. I was told that whatever happens outside the gate was nothing to do with the person in the centre and to ring the International Protection Accommodation Service, IPAS. I rang IPAS and got a voice message service that did not take any voice messages.

As Deputy O'Reilly said, thanks to the work of Fingal Communities Against Racism and people related to that group, an ambulance was called and eventually that gentleman was taken into our health system. Hopefully he is getting the care that he requires. Not only did that highlight a failing of our direct provision system, it highlights a lack of care. I know that in Ireland, if people knock on someone's door when in distress, someone will call an ambulance and help. To think that one would knock on the door of an institution funded by the State and that someone would not even make a phone call for an ambulance is distressing. I am getting away from the substance of the debate, which was not my intention, but it is worth raising and I would appreciate if the Minister could bring it to the attention of the Minister for Justice.

Deputy Murnane O'Connor raised a point which I have been reflecting on in the last number of weeks about whether the committee finished its work too early. I felt that the committee should have ended at the time and am on record as saying it, but perhaps I had a naive view of what the sectoral committees would be able to do with regard to Covid. I regret that the committee ended because we are finding it difficult, amid the Dáil schedule, to keep a focus on the different elements of Covid that continue to dominate our lives and the lives of our citizens and country. We still have space for the committee. One cannot put the toothpaste back in the jar, as they say, but that is a reflection I have since the committee ended its work. It is a reflection on the great work that the committee did. I learned a lot from my colleagues on the committee about rigorous questioning, getting information and compiling a report. The recommendations in this report should not gather dust.

A microelement of this is about the aviation industry. We had an aviation task force that delivered results and recommendations about the aviation industry in July. Those recommendations were not acted on. The recommendations in this committee report are much fuller, broader and deeper, and need to be acted on. The Minister knows that. I am glad to see that the Government seems to be picking up the baton on sick pay. Nursing homes have been mentioned. There is a deep sense that work needs to be done as per the recommendations of this report. I hope that is undertaken as and when it is appropriate, and in as speedy and sensitive a way as possible.

On testing and tracing, what happens in early 2021 will be key. I was encouraged by what the Minister said about resourcing testing and tracing. He mentioned that we will have a two and a half to threefold increase in that. I hope it is enough. The Minister mentioned forward and retrospective testing, an area on which I think we will need to focus in early 2021. When we come out of level 5 and go through December, whatever way December and Christmas go, which we will debate in the next week or so, January and February are key. We are all getting a sense that level 5s and lockdowns will become increasingly difficult to endure for many people. It will become increasingly difficult to keep a sense of discipline because people have lockdown fatigue. That is a fact, which was mentioned at the start of this by the Chief Medical Officer and the previous Minister for Health.

If we can get our testing right, resource it properly, and get testers into towns, villages, meat plants and direct provision centres when outbreaks emerge, and do retrospective testing to go after those people who have been in contact, including with pop-up testing centres, we can beat this and keep things open. Whether places of worship, businesses or sports, that whole gamut will need to come back in 2021. We need to ensure that public health remains at the centre. If we resource our testing and tracing regime appropriately in 2021, we will continue to place public health and the health at the nation at the centre but also allow other things to open and stay open in a fuller capacity. It is not as simple as that but that is a core element we need to focus on. The Labour Party will support any moves that the Government can make to resource testing and tracing as much as it can. The independent scientific advisory group, the Zero-Covid Island group as it has been called, has done much study.

I do not agree with everything they say but they have done some really solid work on testing and tracing that should be examined and taken on board. I thank all of my colleagues on the committee, the Chairman, the clerk and the secretariat.

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