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

I am also privileged to have served on the committee. I thank all involved, including the secretariat, the witnesses and the Chairman, with whom I had very little dispute. The only point on which he and I disagreed, which was unusual for me, concerned the definition of "experts". I still hold the view that the definition of a true expert is the one who knows when to call in the experts. I believe we had them and still have them. NPHET did a remarkable job, coming from a standing start in circumstances we knew very little about to deal with a raging, voracious virus. It is still raging in the way it was, or even worse.

Those who criticise what happened in this jurisdiction should look at what happened in all the other jurisdictions that were held up as examples of best behaviour and best practice. Unfortunately, they did not stand up. Most, if not all, of the counter-evidence did not stand up. The Ceann Comhairle will recall that the advice in adjoining jurisdictions was that the virus would dissipate after it had gone through the community. It did not and still has not. Many more people have tragically passed away. We have seen this in our own communities, and we will continue to see it.

At the beginning, I knew very few people who contracted the virus. Tragically, the ones we knew about were the ones who passed away. They died in very difficult circumstances in which family and friends could not be at their bedsides.

Yet, I know many people, hundreds of people now - like everyone in the House - whose families have contracted the virus. That tells me one thing. This virus is voracious, insidious, invasive and ongoing. If we want evidence, let us look at the way it was treated in the United States. People decided, for what reason I do not know, that it was not a threat and that it would go away. It has not gone away. It still will not go away. It is getting worse.

The example of New Zealand was held up. That country had a second devastating upsurge. Severe action had to be taken. The whole country was completely in lockdown. It was the same in Australia and other countries across Europe.

We should give credit to our people in this country, especially those on the front line in the health services. We should give credit to everyone involved, including the Minister, the previous Minister and the nurses and doctors who were on the front line. We should give credit to An Garda Síochána, which is on the front line as well. I had a discussion with the family of a garda in recent days. In the course of an altercation or disturbance, the garda was infected with the disease. I presume he was deliberately infected. The family are isolating at present. I acknowledge the work done by those in the front line who took their responsibilities seriously and took a good deal of criticism as well, let us face it. However, they did their job.

At this stage the debate has taken a new course. This was always going to be the case. We have to balance the issues, including the economic, social and health issues. Each has to be balanced against the others. This is a serious matter for all of us as members of society. We can use all the evidence we have. We can say that if we had more testing, we would have solved the problem. That is not true. In fact, we can test as much as we like. If people do not observe the rules in terms of distancing and social engagement to a reasonable extent, then we are in trouble. We can test as much as we like and as often as we like but it will not stop the virus from going ahead.

What do we do now? Everyone wants to celebrate Christmas - we all recognise that. My advice is that we need to think carefully about the degree of celebration that goes on. I agree there are certain commercial outlets and smaller shops in our provincial towns and villages that could open, since only small numbers will ever be in them in any event and they have the space to ensure distance. I believe we have to reward some of those businesses by giving them scope to participate in commercial activity provided they can guarantee social distancing and observance of the rules and guidelines. It is the same with restaurants and pubs and whatever. Unless there is an absolute guarantee that they can do that, we will be held up to ridicule. If politicians make a decision that allows further spread of the virus and another lockdown or shutdown, then we will be blamed for it. That is a fact of life. Those of us in Kildare had a double whammy because we had an interim lockdown as well. I believe it was valuable in the sense that it shocked us into realising that this thing had not gone away, and it has not gone away.

I will offer my words, for what they are worth. I know what the pressure will be on now. Everyone else in the House has received telephone calls and emails every day. Some of them are highly critical of our administrators and some are critical of our advisers. The reality is that if we do not want to take the advice of our scientific advisers, then we may not, but there will be consequences. We all know now what the consequences will be. We have had an illustration already. More than 2,000 people have already died. There are those who said at the beginning that it would not be serious and that people could recover from it. People can recover, but they can die as well. People can be left with a permanent mark or impact on their health. We need to realise and wake up to the fact that we can do what we wish if we want to, but the point is that there are consequences. Are we prepared to accept those consequences if we avoid and disregard the scientific advice?

We all know who they are. We have all watched them and worked with them before. I believe they are excellent and have done an excellent job. They are on a par with the best in the world today. That cannot be disputed. They were ahead of the posse in many cases. They identified the rate of infection and what it would be like. They anticipated everything and did their job. It is now a matter for us to follow up. If we decide to have a reopening of part of the economy to the best of our ability, then it has to be on strict grounds of compliance with the regulations. We now know that if we are in company with a group of people, only one of whom was in a similar situation with people who were carriers during the previous fortnight or three weeks, then we will be infected as well. We might as well realise that. It is a fact. There may be those who will say that on the one hand we might and on the other hand we might not or there is a chance that we might not. There is a chance but it is a slim chance.

I believe that fear generated a great deal of respect for our scientists in the first place. We were all fearful that we could be next. That applied to families and everyone. There was strict adherence. Then, after a while, we became complacent. Familiarity became the basis of contempt. That is not a basis and should not become a basis for our attitude in future.

I hope that families throughout the country can have a festive celebration. We all strive for that. It is not necessary to wallow in it. It is possible to socialise and have family reunions or drinks or whatever, but we have to recognise that we had better be careful that we do not paw each other to the extent that we will be spreading the virus to the ends of the earth. Then people may all go home to their respective homes either in the country or outside it. Then they and we have the ability to get it or they have the ability to spread it.

I acknowledge the work of the Chairman and the members of the committee I worked with. I acknowledge the work of the medical experts who we criticise so readily and the Minister whom some others criticise regularly. We all get criticised for the things we do or that we fail to do when we should have done something and what we should not have done at the time we did it. All in all, a great deal of credit is to be taken by those in their respective authorities for the work that has been done so far. I hope they will continue to be successful.

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