David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

This Bill has been a long time coming. It is nine months since NPHET recommended that discretionary elements of travel should end. It is disappointing the solutions in respect of checks and controls at airports are still not in place today when we are debating a Bill which still does not solve the problem. It is still a case of half measures. The Bill will not deal with the real threat of the importation of the virus from outside this State.

It is important for me to point out that we are having this debate at a time of increased anger and frustration among members of the public. They are very angry and frustrated because they want leadership. They want a coherent plan that they can have confidence in and they need hope. The reality is that they are not getting that from the Government or from the Minister for Health. The Government needs to get its act together. It has to stop sending out mixed messages. It has to stop the poor communication. It has to stop the botched media interviews. It has to stop the half measures and it needs to be putting in place the solutions that people can have confidence in and believe. That will not only get the numbers down low but it will keep them low.

As we gather here today and as the Minister knows, people have been through a horrific year in terms of the sacrifices they have made. People lost their jobs. People are stuck at home and they cannot leave save for essential purposes. They have been home schooling their children for months. I welcome the moves in the right direction in terms of reopening schools. People have seen their businesses close. Many businesses have not been able to open their doors for almost a year. All of those sacrifices have taken their toll on people's mental health, as well as socially and economically. When they make those sacrifices the very least they expect is that the Government will get its act together and put in place solutions to problems that only it can solve.

While people are playing their part abiding by restrictions and getting the case numbers down low, they have a real fear that, because the Government is failing to make the investments in certain areas and to go the distance in respect of mandatory testing and quarantine on travel, their efforts will be in vain and that we will again lose control of the virus. That is a very serious issue because when people lose confidence in the process, it is very dangerous. I want people to have confidence in the Government, in the process and in the ability of the Government to be able to deliver but I have to say that people are losing faith, if many have not already lost faith.

People are making the sacrifices they are making and are being told that they cannot stray outside 5 km from their own homes yet we are still not putting in place mandatory hotel quarantine for all international travel. How can that be the case? Can the Minister explain that to people because it has not been explained? I ask the Minister to listen to what I am saying. This is an important debate and having conversations with backbenchers is not appropriate. This is an important issue. The Minister had his chance to have his say and I listened so I ask him to please give me the respect of listening to what I am saying. People cannot understand why the Government is not going the full distance when they are making the sacrifices they are making. They are asking us why people who can still come in from some countries are not subject to mandatory PCR testing or hotel quarantine. Some people from some countries will be but we are still leaving ourselves exposed and we still do not have sufficient checks and balances. I cannot explain that to people. I do not have the answers for them because there is no excuse. There is no reason.

We in Sinn Féin will be tabling a number of amendments to this Bill and we will do so constructively. We are tabling amendments because we want a system that is fit for purpose. We are nearly 12 months on from the start of this pandemic and the Minister still has not got his act together in the context of sharing data on travel with his colleague in the North. That is on the Minister. He cannot blame anybody else. That matter is under his purview. That is his job. The Minister of Health in the North has reached out time and again on this issue but neither the Minister for Health nor the Government have responded. We are tabling an amendment to ensure that we have that level of data sharing. We are tabling an amendment to make sure that anybody coming into this State, irrespective of the country they are coming from, will be subject to mandatory hotel quarantine for all non-essential travel. If the Minister does not facilitate the latter, he will make a mockery of the whole process because he cannot enforce people quarantining at home. It is impossible to do that. It is the type of nod-and-wink solution that got us into the mess in which we find ourselves. Unless the solutions are real, robust and effective, we will continue to see more cases of the virus imported.

It must be said that this is on the Government and its failure to act in these areas. It is also extraordinary that even in this Bill there is still no provision for mandatory PCR testing post arrival for people quarantining at home. It is still only advisory. How can I explain that to somebody who is making sacrifices at present? How can the Minister or anybody in the Chamber explain that when we know what we have been through?

I want people to have hope that restrictions can be lifted in the summer. Everybody wants to have the sense that come the summer, we may be in a position to ease restrictions and give back people their lives. This will not be done if the ingredients necessary for maximum suppression are not there. I received figures this week from the HSE on testing and tracing staff. The target set months ago by the HSE was for 2,000 swabbers and contact tracers but fewer than 1,600 have been employed. Again, when people are making sacrifices and playing their part, the Government is falling short on testing and tracing. We hear from healthcare trade unions that we still do not have serial testing in hospitals. What in God's name is going on when we are not even hunting down the virus in hospitals? We need to use testing and tracking to hunt the virus when numbers are low, thereby putting us in a position where we can stay ahead of the virus, as opposed to losing control, which we have done in the past.

There are obvious ingredients in a maximum suppression strategy given to us at the outset of the entire process. They include testing and tracing but we have never got that right. That is on the Minister and his Government. We have never got the all-island response right in terms of sharing data and that is on the Minister and his Government. We are debating travel checks at ports and airports but we are still not getting it right. It is infuriating for people that even today, as Members debate this Bill, there is no commencement date on when the Bill will come into effect. We have no idea.

Many of us had a briefing with some senior civil servants from the Department about this and it seems the detail of the Bill is still being worked out. We have no idea when this will come into effect and I cannot tell anybody what day, week or month hotel quarantining will be introduced. Perhaps the Minister has the answer but it has not been given to us. How does that inspire confidence and how can I leave the Chamber today saying we had a debate and there is a Bill before the Dáil, although I have no idea when it will come into operation or if all the detail has been worked out. Moreover, I have a good idea that most of it has not been worked out and there is much work to be done nine months after the Government was told by NPHET to remove the discretionary elements of travel with respect to testing post arrival and quarantines.

The Minister must really get his act together and the Government must pull itself together once and for all. People are really angry and frustrated and I do not blame them. When they are making these sacrifices, the very least they could expect is that the Minister, the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste should do their jobs. Please stop competing for headlines and botched media interviews. Please stop competing with the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste, the leader of the Green Party and others to be first to a microphone or to talk to a journalist about what may or may not be in any plan. People should be given the hope they need, as that is really what is lacking from the Minister and his Government. There must be a big step change in the weeks and months ahead.

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