Dáil debates

Wednesday, 16 December 2020

Impact of Covid-19 Restrictions: Motion [Private Members]

 

10:00 am

Photo of Michael CollinsMichael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mairead McGrath and Brian Ó Domhnaill for putting together this Private Members’ motion. It is an important motion referring to the many difficulties people have experienced during this Covid crisis. In many cases, people have been overlooked during this pandemic. We need to be cautious about and respect the dangers of Covid-19 which is what rural communities have tried to do, in particular my constituency.

I want to look at issues and areas where there have been serious failings during the period of Covid-19, especially for people with mental health issues. I mention the stress Covid-19 has caused and I want to look at the services. In a report I looked at recently I saw that mental health services are receiving less funding than they were last year, at a time when they need increased funding because, unfortunately, we have situations of suicide in every constituency, which far outnumber the deaths from Covid-19 on some days. It is a sad and difficult time for people. More finances should be pumped into those services.

I will also look at the cancer screening services, which have been mentioned, and the difficulties people have encountered. In general, it has been very difficult for people to get appointments in clinics. Covid-19 has been used as an excuse. I was on the Special Committee on Covid-19 Response in the first months of the Covid-19 crisis and there was much discussion there about nursing homes, the lack of funding for nursing homes and the lack of funding for community hospitals. I could name quite a number of hospitals. The State is administering the funding for community hospitals.

People in Clonakilty Community Hospital passed away due to Covid-19. I looked at reports which had for the past numbers of years condemned certain parts of the hospital, not the hard-working staff. Unfortunately, there was a failure by the State to provide funding to bring it up to HIQA standards. It was written in black and white prior to the pandemic and HIQA stated there was an issue with overcrowding in some of the rooms. Unfortunately, those reports are there and they have a legacy. No action has been taken by the State or the Department of Health and people have been left in these rooms, which left us in unfortunate situations. The State has to stand up and look at its historical actions on community hospitals and on Clonakilty Community Hospital. The State has to put it right now and not wait. The unfortunate thing I see in community hospitals is that now people are not being allowed in. Fewer people are being allowed into the community hospitals so more beds are being closed instead of bringing them up to a modern standard.

I also spoke at great length about tourism at the beginning of the pandemic because I could see that in communities where there was a great amount of tourism, people were very worried. I called for rapid Covid-19 testing in our airports from the word "go" but unfortunately that fell on deaf ears. The airport officials, the Government and the then Taoiseach, Deputy Varadkar, said it was far too dear. They are all trying to run with these tests now but they should have been in place from the word "go" so that when people flew into our country, at least they would have had a Covid-19 test and people would feel far more relaxed. They should have certified and implemented that.

I thank the Minister for being here; I appreciate that. People wanted to worship in the churches. We are one of only three countries in the world that closed our churches. The Minister has amazing power because it had not happened for a couple of hundred years in Ireland that the churches were closed to the public. That caused great hurt. Churches that could hold 500 people were not allowed to hold four or five people. Some churches are bigger than this place and we have no problem in meeting here but we have an issue with people going to worship in their churches, regardless of what religion they are.

I refer to the marts. When we raised the levels recently, people could not go to marts. A mart is like an open shed. Some marts were putting in all sorts of spacing measures in place so that the buyers alone could go in and they were not allowed in.

The mortgage moratorium was very welcome but unfortunately that is gone. I am meeting publicans, in particular, and many other business people and they are trying to do a deal with the banks but the banks have no interest in doing a deal now. Their businesses are closed, which is incredible. I will take the Minister for a spin around Dublin this evening and he will see where the hundreds and thousands of people are in this or that place. I do not want to be pointing the finger but pubs that would have two, three or four people in them most days are not allowed to open. It is scandalous. They have not been able to earn a brown cent and now the banks are looking for their money. These people are stressed to the living last as to where they will get the money.

I have talked about student nurses and the unfair way they have been treated during the Covid-19 crisis. They were at the front line working hard and they were treated horribly. We were standing up in the Dáil clapping them. Clapping is not good enough. We need to deliver. The registration fee for nurses of €100 was not even withdrawn to give them some break. We have been down on people and there are many issues that need to be discussed but my time is up.

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