Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

The Government was full of praise for itself when Ireland had one of the lowest rates of infection in Europe before Christmas. Now it is trying to dodge responsibility when Ireland has the highest rate of Covid infection in the world. The Taoiseach went on the Claire Byrne show and tried to put the lion's share of the blame on the UK variant. He did not comment yesterday when Mike Ryan stated at a press conference that the variant is not the driver behind the new transmission rate. It is a factor but not the key factor. The key factor was the reopening of the economy, including the restaurants, gastropubs and big retail, and the decisions made by the Government before Christmas against public health advice.

Yesterday, Fórsa spoke about macho managers in the public service. There are not just macho managers in the public service; there are plenty of them in the private sector. Fórsa made the point that there are more public sector workers at work now, at a time it is more dangerous, than there were in the first wave in March, April and May. The same applies in the private sector. Hundreds of thousands of private sector employees are going to work. No section of the economy should be open, apart from those that are vitally necessary in the fight against the virus, namely, the health service and so on. That should be the policy of the State. If the State does not adopt such a policy, the workers and the workers' movement should adopt that policy. There should be a de facto general strike to close down the remainder of the economy and it should remain closed until such time as it is safe to reopen.

The next two or three weeks will be unprecedented in the history of our health service. I salute our front line staff, and I want to mention a cohort of them, namely, the student nurses. A total of 1,500 fourth years went into the hospitals on Sunday and they are being paid less than the minimum wage. They will now be followed by thousands of their first, second and third year colleagues. There is a recommendation on the Minister's desk that they should be paid €100 per week. That is less than €3 per hour for people going to work in hospitals with a pandemic raging all around them. Is he seriously considering that proposal? I invite him to take up the opposite position, rip up that proposal, state that it is outrageous and pay the student nurses at the level they demand, namely, the healthcare assistant rate

See this speech in context