Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

Maybe so. The Government, in fiscal terms, took the wrong decision in the level of stringency it pursued on the lockdown. This country was the sixth most strictly locked down country on the planet. Some 96% of all countries on the planet decided to have a less stringent strategy. This was despite the fact that we had the second lowest level of Covid-19 in Europe. One will say, correctly, that those two things are dependent upon each other. We have the second lowest level because of those stringent restrictions. That would be wonderful had there not been a massive cost in health, finance and society terms. Very few people are discussing this issue. Given the history of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, I have no doubt we are heading towards a 2011, 2012, and 2013 situation here. There is no doubt there will be significant cutbacks in expenditure over the next number of years to achieve balanced budgets and to make some effort at ordering the runaway debt that this country has entered into over the next while. When one measures that, it does not lead to a view that this Government has been fiscally responsible.

This is called a rainy day fund. It is raining on many people already. Some 56 homeless people have already died in this State this year. This is much more than last year or the year before because we have not built the homes for them. Some 844,000 people are on our healthcare waiting lists. There are 612,000 people on outpatient waiting lists. We are talking about cancer, heart disease, stroke and mental health. If the Government is willing to put that money into a rainy day fund and willing to allow that level of ill-health, that means that the Government is actually making a financial statement. It is saying that it tolerates this level of homelessness and ill-health because it has the money but is going to put it into a rainy day fund. It is lashing rain on hundreds of thousands of people in this State and we need to ensure that we focus these moneys as soon as we can towards ameliorating their existence.

See this speech in context