Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

The failure to address the issue of travel and the consequent importation of various strains of Covid into this country have been among the biggest failings of this Government. This absolutely baffles people and has made a major contribution to the low mood of the public generally, particularly since the Christmas period. We are all feeling that and hearing it from our constituents. It is clear from listening to people in the media, meeting or speaking to friends on the phone and speaking to neighbours that the mood is very low. It was captured last weekend in a social media post, from which I will quote because it encapsulates and articulates exactly what the public mood is like at the moment. It is from a woman called Clare Kelly, who is a developmental cognitive neuroscientist in Trinity College Dublin. She wrote:

Hints about lockdown extending to May have left people feeling upset, frustrated, & outraged. Bungled communication, mixed messages & the lack of a goal other than misery-level mitigation threaten the high level of lockdown compliance people have shown so far. Here’s why –

Following the rules means huge collective sacrifice: an inability to see family & friends, travel >5km, or gather in the park. We are all tired & frustrated, yet compliance with the rules has remained high. But the consequences of gaps & loopholes are increasingly clear.

Failure to impose sufficient travel restrictions, incl. Mandatory Hotel Quarantine for ALL travellers, repeatedly seeds the virus in our communities & imports new variants. Too many employers demanding attendance means workplace transmission is high.

The result is that we feel our collective sacrifice is undermined. This situation can lead to reduced compliance in several ways:

We feel the rules are unfair. When our evolutionarily deep-rooted need for fairness is violated, we experience wounded pride (being “taken for a mug") &/or anger (personal/moral outrage). These emotions lead to protest, rule resistance & even rebellion.

We feel our efforts are wasted. People will not continue to comply when they feel the situation is hopeless & their efforts wasted. When a goal is felt to be unachievable, we abandon & devalue it. Reduced compliance helps resolve the conflict felt about giving up.

We feel we are being disrespected. Info leaks, mixed msgs, incoherence amongst leaders & perceived violations of promises & responsibilities (e.g., to protect the health of citizens [that is pretty basic]) adds to feelings of unfairness, provoking anger & reduced compliance.

These are rational responses to our situation, where personal responsibility is squeezed to its limit. To prevent declining compliance & 4th wave, political leadership MUST take action to: 1) link restrictions w/ clear goal ... [and with] intermediate case-linked benchmarks & rewards for success (e.g. relaxation of 5km rule once cases reach a specific reduction); 2) immediately address & enforce travel restrictions; 3) communicate clearly, coherently & respectfully; 4) focus attention on the successful cooperation of majority not bad behaviour of a few.

That encapsulates just how members of the public are thinking at the moment.

Those feelings were not eased in any way by last night's announcement by the Taoiseach. We have had this drip-feed of information and, unfortunately, the leaks and kite-flying have been shown to be accurate. We are now faced with more of the same. It is a case of continue to muddle along for the next six weeks and then we will see what happens. There are no clear targets, identified goals or an aim around which people can coalesce and work because there is no political leadership on this. Let us wait and see can only mean rolling lockdowns. It is the policy that has been pursued from the very beginning. It is a policy that has failed us, which is why we need a new direction and a new strategy.

It was quite incredible that in the long-awaited and much-publicised announcement by the Taoiseach last night, the issue of travel was not mentioned even once. It is amazing that should be the case when many people are having those feelings about why they should continue as they are when the Government is not playing its part, particularly regarding giving guidance on how we can now redouble efforts to get those figures down. We know that the schools and other aspects of our society and economy cannot open up until those figures dip right down, as they did last summer. A key part of this is also to ensure that once we get figures down, we do not continue to import the virus and reseed it, because that has been happening for the past 12 months.

The legislation for mandatory hotel quarantining we are discussing looks more like a box-ticking exercise rather than a serious effort to stop the importation of the virus. It needs to be amended in many ways to close the loopholes on quarantine requirements and ensure that inward travellers from all countries are subject to mandatory hotel quarantine. We know that almost half of the visitors who have come to Ireland from abroad declared that their travel was non-essential. However, the Government has only put 20 countries on the hotel quarantine list. In the first two weeks of February, passengers from only one of those countries were even arriving into our airports. They only accounted for 7% of all international arrivals. We need to know the rationale behind putting those other countries on that list. Most that were added are sub-Saharan African countries. I am not sure how many people travelled from there. We need clarification, of course, on the numbers who are travelling from there and confirmation that we are talking about people whose travel originates in those countries, even though many of them will be transiting through other airports.

Figures show that since the post-Christmas period, approximately 72,000 people arrived into our airports. The big numbers came mainly from European countries, a matter about which we are not doing anything of serious consequence. There has been much talk about Brazil and the Brazilian variant, yet most people who travelled here from that country came through Portugal. Is there clarification that all those travellers are being picked up and that there will be a response when they arrive here?

The real "game changers", a term used an awful lot by the Taoiseach who refers to various game changers, are actually the virus variants that give rise to completely change the approach. They create huge uncertainty and give rise to unknowns about the future. That is why we need to take a completely different approach and concentrate absolutely on limiting the potential for the importation of existing known variants to the greatest extent possible. The Minister has already outlined that there is much concern, particularly regarding the efficacy of the existing vaccines in the context of responding to the new variants but also the inevitable other variants that will emerge over time.

This legislation will have little impact on the numbers arriving from abroad. Of equal concern is the fact that the proposals relating to people who will engage in onward travel to Northern Ireland are not clear at all. We tried to get some clarification on this the other day but it was not forthcoming. It seems, therefore, that the requirements for people travelling from those 20 designated countries will not apply to people who will be transiting on to Northern Ireland or people who are resident in Northern Ireland and who come through the Republic's airports, particularly Dublin Airport. Again, we have a loophole and another opportunity for a dodge. People will be arriving in with the same kind of public health concerns we have about people who live in counties Kerry, Wicklow, Galway or anywhere. They will be exempted and they will travel. They might get the train, Aircoach or Bus Éireann coach to travel the North. What is going to happen? Will that remain as a serious loophole? Will anything actually be done to ensure there are controls on the potential importation of the virus from those people?

Equally, the reverse of that is a matter of concern. As matters stand, people from the Republic who decide to travel into Belfast, for example, and who are coming from one of the designated countries are required, under legislation, to present themselves at a hotel for quarantine. Again, how on earth is that overseen? How does one monitor that? It is mind-boggling. There is no explanation for that whatsoever. Of course, we know about the lack of response from the authorities in the North throughout last summer in the Dublin dodge. That really is unforgivable. For the last nine or ten months, many of us have spoken about the need for an all-island strategy to address this issue of the importation of the virus. We know, of course, from the record now that there was little or no response from our Minister for Health or, indeed, the Government. At no point was a serious effort made to engage with authorities in Northern Ireland to work to achieve an all-island strategy. That was a major missed opportunity.

Of course, we need to learn from countries such as New Zealand and Australia that have implemented successful hotel-quarantining systems based on requirements for all incoming passengers regardless of the country of departure.

Those are the principles underpinning a successful strategy that has been used in many other countries. It has to be said that does not include European countries because Europe, in the main, has not responded to Covid particularly well. Apart from New Zealand, Australia, Taiwan, South Korea and Vietnam, many other countries have led the way in how to respond successfully. It entails controlling the importation of the virus. Once that has been done and the numbers have reached a low level, which we achieved last summer and are capable of achieving again with political leadership, the reward is the opening of the domestic economy, domestic tourism and schools and a functioning social life. That is what we could achieve if a different approach were taken. It is not as if a lockdown to achieve that objective would take longer than what the Government is proposing now. Unfortunately, what the Government is proposing does not mean there is an end in sight. Rather, it is a recipe for rolling lockdowns. I cannot see that the Government is effectively doing anything different from what it has done for the past year.

Unfortunately, there are a number of unknowns in this legislation. It was rushed, in spite of the statement from NPHET on 8 May last year that a mandatory regime of self-isolation for 14 days at a designated facility for all persons arriving into Ireland from overseas was required. In recent weeks, NPHET has reiterated that any discretion on quarantining or isolation must be removed, yet the Government ignores its advice. The country has paid an enormous price for that failure.

I will make a couple of other points on the legislation as a number of matters are not clear. We should have had this legislation at least six months ago. It is now being rushed through very late in the day, which means there has been no pre-legislative scrutiny of the Bill. We had a short briefing on it the other morning, which is no way to do business. There are problems with the Bill, including potential loopholes, and we do not have adequate time to consider them. There is a lack of clarity on who will oversee all of these provisions. Concerns have been expressed about ensuring that we have adequate human rights protections in the Bill, similar to those that other countries have put in place. It is important that any exemptions to quarantine must be clear and effectively communicated to the public. It is also essential that a risk assessment, including a mental health assessment, is carried out on persons in State care, which is what quarantine would effectively entail. It is important that we have proper physical and mental health supports, oversight and services provided for people who are in quarantine.

What is not clear is what will happen if people do not pre-book for quarantining. Can the Minister guarantee that accommodation will be available? We do not know what practical steps have been taken so far. It seems the hotels, transport services, food and other catering services to be used, as well as details on the provision of health services, have not been finalised. It would be helpful if we could get a briefing on that because a briefing was not available this week when we requested one.

It is vital that this legislation is introduced. Notwithstanding how important it is and how rushed people are, it is also important that there is no compromise on proper procurement. We need to have transparent procurement for all of the necessary services I listed. We cannot have a repeat of what happened last year. The Minister will remember the scandal of the taxpayer paying €14 million for ventilators which were never used, the whereabouts of which we do not even know. It would appear that contract arose from personal contacts, potentially at a political level. I am still waiting to hear from the Tánaiste about claims that he had some involvement in the matter. I wish he would reply to my letters. We cannot have such a lack of transparency. However rushed this is, we have to do it properly and ensure the suppliers of services are reliable and trustworthy. We should not be operating on the basis of personal recommendations, particularly at a political level.

We will deal with amendments tomorrow. It is critical that the Minister listen to what other people are saying. He has been left to manage this issue. His colleagues, the Ministers for Transport, Justice and Foreign Affairs, have basically abandoned him to deal with it. It should not be that way. The Minister's colleagues did not take on their share of responsibility last year when they should have done so. It is important now that responsibility is shared. Given the huge workload of the Minister and his Department, I am concerned that many aspects of this proposal will be overlooked. The fundamental problem with the Bill, which we support in the main and in principle, is that it does not go anywhere near far enough if we are serious about clamping down on the importation of the virus. The public will not forgive the Government for that.

See this speech in context