Michael McNamara (Clare, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Ceann Comhairle both for his compliments and for the assistance he gave the committee at various crucial stages. There were inevitably difficulties with accommodating a committee at a difficult time and when advice was novel, as it inevitably is in the context of a novel coronavirus pandemic.

I welcome the fact that both the Minister of State and the Minister have said they are looking at how answers will be given to families. The committee obviously came to the very clear recommendation that a statutory inquiry is the way to do that. If there is another way to do that we were not aware of it. If there is then that is well and good but I think we are all agreed that they need answers and not at some indefinite point in the future. They need and deserve answers.

The committee also had a recommendation around an inquiry into meat plants. Notwithstanding Deputy Eoghan Murphy's comments about the frailties of an inquiry, I am a little bit disappointed by the lack of any sort of movement towards looking at what happened. What happened in meat plants was in some respects different from what happened in the rest of Europe, where there was also a lot of outbreaks in meat plants. We learned that in Ireland workers in meat plants are uniquely vulnerable. They are made so by the work permit system under which they operate; they effectively work in conditions of bonded labour. That is wrong and needs to be addressed. Farmers were also treated very badly by meat plants at the time, although that is not unusual. I should declare that I am a farmer myself. We are used to being treated badly by meat plants but that does not mean it is right. It is wrong and it needs to stop at some point.

The Minister mentioned testing throughout his remarks, and an advancement in testing, and I welcome that. He limited his comments however, to PCR testing. I appreciate that even the Minister for Health does not have an endless amount of time to read everything but there is a new document being considered by EU leaders today. It concerns a European Commission recommendation around rapid antigen testing. I do not know what the outcome of it was; perhaps he will be able to find out from the Taoiseach. PCR testing is the gold standard recommended by the WHO and everybody accepts that. It has frailties however, and many of them. It may be that it is the best type of testing there is, those frailties notwithstanding. Among those frailties is the fact it is very expensive and it takes a lot of time. It seems there is a role for rapid antigen testing, particularly perhaps, in seeking to open up our aviation sector on which we in Ireland are uniquely reliant. I look forward to the Government expanding on that in conjunction with other EU member states.

Various Members referred to the winding up of the committee and it would be remiss of me to not say that the committee did not decide we were sick of it and should wind up - it was wound up by a Dáil motion put down by the Government. That is democracy; it is a great privilege to live in a democracy, one we cannot take for granted, and one must accept the decisions of the majority. I agree with Deputy Patricia Ryan that we cannot talk about a new normal. The basic right to liberty and to live in a democracy are important and cannot be forgotten about. In our response we need to ensure that we do not somehow fail to value what is truly important to us. Deputy Cullinane said he disagreed with me but is it not a fantastic thing that we can disagree in our democracy and we can move on without vilifying and attacking each other? We need to maintain that and it is important to debate our response to this as a State, a nation and a people in the Dáil, and to hold the response to account more in this House.

There was also discussion of proportionality. We cannot lose sight of the fact that 2,000 people have now died with coronavirus in Ireland. We do, however, need to get some more statistics, namely, who died, for how many of the 2,000 people who died was Covid the major cause of death and, even more important, how many of those contracted the virus in hospital after going there with something else. These are important statistics and I do not seek them to minimise Covid-19 or to seek to say it is not important. It is important, but so is so much else. If the mortality rate in Ireland is approximately what it was this time last year, then 3,800 people will have died during the duration of this lockdown. That is 3,800 people who may have died without seeing loved ones. There are people who are not going to get a chance to say goodbye. There are also people who die unexpectedly but how awful to not have seen a parent, sibling or loved one in the last month. We need to reflect on that and maintain perspective. It is important we maintain that proportion and our humanity, that which enables us to think we are made in the image and likeness of a divinity.

I will finish by thanking people without whom the committee could not have run, particularly the clerks in the secretariat for all the work they did to enable the committee to sit, particularly during the summer vacation. I thank the Minister, Deputy Donnelly, and indeed NPHET who came in during the summer vacation to answer questions. Lastly, I thank the witnesses who gave of their time and of their expertise at a time when they were exceptionally busy.

See this speech in context