Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I, too, am very concerned about this lack of debate and lack of discussion of the vaccine programme. I asked the Taoiseach about this some time ago and he dismissed me, as Deputy Connolly said, with a "get real". I am asking him to get real. The Rural Independent Group has 6.5 minutes to contribute to the debate on Thursday. Is that all we can get? Is that the meagre amount of time the Government is prepared to give us in a debate on this very serious issue? A no-fault compensation scheme is not even being discussed. The Taoiseach said he discussed it today at Cabinet and he is looking at some other report. This is farcical in the extreme, and that is why people out there are concerned. People such as Dr. Ronan Glynn are saying questions need to be answered. May we get any answers in here? Are we not supposed to be representatives of the people? Will we have any meaningful debate on the roll-out of this vaccine, which may well have commenced before we come back here on 13 January? It is a disgrace and, like everything else about the way the Government has handled Covid, so illogical. This is hiding from the Parliament and hiding from accountability. We are entitled to ask questions here and hold the Government to account. It is shameful. Six and a half minutes is an insult to the democratic process. To think that we could discuss this serious issue in six and a half minutes per group - there are six in our group - is a sham and a scam.

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