Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

Ireland is the sixth most restricted country in the world and this is despite the fact that we have the second lowest level of Covid in Europe. This means that 97% of all the countries in the world have chosen strategies that are less restricted than Ireland. Ireland is a significant outlier in international terms and this has given rise to a massive human cost.

The WHO has stated that lockdowns should only be used when there is so much pressure on a health service that it will be overwhelmed. We have not been in such a situation in this wave.

When measured purely on the basis of Covid numbers, Ireland has done comparatively well. If all of life's other indicators are measured, though, Ireland has done shockingly poorly. As a result of the Government's decisions, there have been 150,000 missed cancer appointments, 200,000 women are on waiting lists for cancer screening and there are widespread diagnosis and treatment delays for stroke, heart disease and mental health. Today, 480 people were diagnosed with cancer, 24 people died from cancer and 27 people died from heart disease or strokes. Due to Government restrictions, these health areas have not had the necessary resources given to them.

Regarding mental health, it is a poor situation that we do not yet have the current suicide figures. These figures are generated from coroner's reports, which tend to be made six months to a year after a suicide has happened. When I tabled a parliamentary question to the Minister for Health, he admitted to me that suicide prevention organisations had advised him that there had been a recent increase in suicides. More than 500,000 Irish people are out of work, more than 3,000 SMEs have closed for good and there has been a 25% increase in child poverty, which is directly related to future mortality and morbidity rates. We in Aontú are not saying that there is no need for restrictions. There is a need, but the current restrictions are disproportionate and having a serious and negative effect on lives.

We called for the Government to focus on protecting the most vulnerable. More than half of those who have died from Covid were in nursing homes. Nursing homes were not properly protected. That was the first line on which the Government needed to focus. The second was ICU and ensuring that we had the necessary ICU capacity to deal with the pandemic. Precious little of the €18 billion announced in the previous budget went into the front line of ICU and extra hospital beds.

We asked the Government to focus on testing at airports, but there is still none. Let no one be fooled, in that Irish people in their tens of thousands will travel home for Christmas. People from other countries who are working in Ireland will travel to those countries for Christmas. If we do not get our testing to ensure that all of this can happen safely, we will suffer significantly in the new year.

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