Dáil debates

Wednesday, 24 February 2021

Health (Amendment) Bill 2021: Second Stage (Resumed)

 

4:50 pm

Photo of Duncan SmithDuncan Smith (Dublin Fingal, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The Bill that is being presented to us represents a worrying political compromise between what should be delivered and what is being delivered because of opposition within the Government. As my party leader, Deputy Kelly, and other speakers have said, the Ministers for Justice and for Transport should be here, alongside the Minister for Health, who is representing the public health element. I noted when the Minister, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, was going through the provisions of the Bill that the majority of them relate to penal provisions in respect of breaking the law. That is why the Minister for Justice should be here. In addition, transport is fundamentally at the heart of these provisions, which is why the Minister for Transport should be here. The latter is never here, however, when we are discussing the public health elements of transport and travel. Deputy O'Rourke has participated alongside me during transport debates in the Chamber and I am sure he would say the same.

This is a hugely important Bill, probably the most important we have had so far this term, and it is going to change things. It will shift the dial in terms of how we approach this crisis. The Minister said that some people will see it as harsh and some will see it as insufficient. In many ways, it is both. Anybody who has to go into hotel quarantine will go through something that is not very easy. However, the Bill is totally insufficient because underpinning it all is too much voluntarism. For any of us who sat through the meetings of the Covid committee last year or contributed to these debates in recent months, we know that every measure that has been brought in was not enough. The prime example of that is the laughable airport and seaport testing regime that is in place at present. Engaging a highly expensive private company to carry out tests in the long-term car park at Dublin Airport, nearly 1.5 km from the terminal building, is not a testing regime. Those measures were brought in at the end of November by the Dublin Airport Authority, DAA, which threw its hands up and said it could no longer wait for a lead from the Government that was not coming. We were not even talking about variants at that time.

We would have been able to tackle more effectively the tragedy that has occurred since late November, through December and January and which we are still living with today if the Government had invested belief and resources into a proper testing regime. It did not do so, however, and we are seeing a similar approach in this Bill. There remain too many loopholes, outs and ways for people coming into the country not to have to quarantine and get tested. Everything we are hearing about the variants is scaring the living hell out of all of us, including their transmissibility and how quickly they spread through the community even when we are practising distancing, handwashing and everything else we need to do. That is why the Bill needs to be strong. It does not need to be strong because we want to score political points against one another; it needs to be strong because we are an island nation. The virus first came into this country because of travel and travel has played a large part in its incidence here. The latest wave has been so bad in large part because of the variants that have come in through travel and there not being an effective regime in place to counter that.

We cannot continue to put off taking a belt and braces approach to this crisis. We are nearly a year on from the first case in Ireland and we have had neither a belt nor a braces approach, never mind both. The response has been totally lackadaisical and the resources have never been put in to tackle the crisis. There is public support for a stronger response, even though people know it will be difficult. I am sure all Members have had calls from people abroad who are looking to come home or have plans to travel for certain types of work and are wondering what the story is. We cannot tell them because we have no dates and no details. That is another problem that is highlighted with the introduction of this Bill.

People are aware that this is going to be difficult, but the measure has to be introduced.

The aviation sector is again being told that it will be at the end of the queue. There is no survival package for it. There is nothing to protect the workers' jobs or their terms and conditions. There is nothing to protect the companies to ensure that when we beat this virus, we will have a sector that will help to drive economic recovery. That is why we need the Minister for Transport here. He has to speak to these issues. It is not the job of the Minister for Health to do so. Aviation is a major element because this Bill will have ramifications for it. This is a major Bill. It is not just about getting people into rooms and serving them food at the door. There are major implications far beyond that. It is lamentable that we do not see enough Cabinet representatives on the Government side of the House. It is absolutely shameful.

I need to ask the Minister about inbound essential workers, particularly those working in the agriculture sector. At the start of the pandemic last year, there were workers coming to work in horticulture and agriculture and in meat plants. Are they deemed to be essential workers? If so, will they not have to quarantine in hotels? We believe everyone should have to quarantine in a hotel. I am concerned about what will occur if the workers are deemed to be essential and will not be subject to the legislation as presented by the Government. We saw last year that workers who were brought in were housed in cramped, dormitory-style accommodation and in poor conditions that allowed the virus to spread among them. There were high numbers of cases and deaths. This matter was raised many times in the Dáil. There were many debates at the time with the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine and the Minister for Health but I do not believe anything has changed. Have the big employers been negotiated with on this? Everyone coming in needs to quarantine. If the workers are coming in, where will they be housed ultimately? If they are to be housed in the same way they were housed in recent years, we will have a huge problem. So, too, will the workers because, when the virus comes in, it will spread and cause hurt and death as it did last year. That cannot be allowed to happen again. We need an answer.

It is obvious that the vaccine strategy is the strategy for the Government. We are starting to hear about people in our lives who are over 85 getting the vaccine, which is encouraging. The rejigging of the sequencing that was announced last night is welcome. There is one element of it that I want to highlight. For the first time, as far as I can see, although it may have been done in other countries, people with chronic mental health conditions such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and severe depression have been identified as being particularly vulnerable to the virus. They are particularly vulnerable and they have been reprioritised on those grounds. That is welcome. Not only does it recognise how vulnerable people with mental health issues are to physical disease but it also puts a policy in this regard into practice. That is good.

The Minister of State with responsibility for mental health, Deputy Butler, should note that the mental health of people put in hotels will need to be monitored. The mental health of people in rooms for 14 days should be monitored by some kind of mental health professional so that if they need assistance, they will have a pathway. That is important. I would like the Minister to indicate how many hotels have been contacted and lined up. What types of security firms will be used? What companies will do the catering? Are the practical, operational elements in place? How far along are they?

To go back to my major point, my concern is that the Government is not really committed to this. It hopes that if the vaccine strategy is successful over the next few weeks, it will not have to use this legislation. That would be an absolute disaster.

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