Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this.

Since day one, it has been essential that we bring the public with us every step of the way and in every decision during this Covid pandemic. However, each week it becomes more difficult to explain to the public the inconsistencies and decisions that the Government is making. The public wonder why they are restricted to 5 km and why they cannot visit family, go to church or do normal things. That has to be at present, but at the same time the Government has dragged its feet for ten months on mandatory quarantine and real restrictions on international travellers. Ten months ago, Sinn Féin called for a 14-day mandatory system of hotel quarantine for international inward travel. So did the Chief Medical Officer, as a matter of record. Finally, after all the foot-dragging, the Government has now at last moved on this issue, but only for 20 countries. This is worrying when the Brazilian and South African variants are on tour right across various continents.

We have also called for much more to be done to take advantage of the island's sea border. This is a challenge and yet the Government has shown a lack of leadership on North-South co-operation. Two weeks ago, I asked the Minister whether we had requested data sharing with his counterpart in the North. I ask the Minister again today has that been done. There has been no serious effort to support Sinn Féin's efforts to get the DUP to join a coherent all-island strategy to tackle Covid and place restrictions on ports in the North.

I will raise a few points around the vaccine. Capacity needs to be ramped up across the State. I am not fool enough to think that there is a silver bullet to solve this. It will take many measures to do it. We realise the difficulties involved but there are things we can do. We need to ramp up capacity so that when supply comes we can deliver it. We need to use Army medics. Can people who are medically trained within the Civil Defence and Order of Malta, who are trained in vaccinations, be used? That is happening in other countries.

With regard to centres, I am aware that the Pfizer vaccine cannot be used everywhere and can only be used in a controlled environment because of the temperature requirements. However, other vaccines can be stored in an ordinary fridge. Why are we not utilising town halls and community centres that we have at our disposal? They are empty at present. Why not use property that is owned by the local authority and parishes instead of using private venues all the time where someone makes a profit out of the pandemic?

Finally, testing and tracing needs to be improved. The recent halt to the programme for close contacts shows that it is not adequate. It is essential that we get this right and that the capacity is there to defeat the virus. We all know this. The Government knows it. We know it.

Even at this late stage, I call on the Government to use the options it has. The Government has options to improve the restrictions on international travel and increase all-island co-operation. We will support the Government every step of the way with that. Let us ramp up the vaccine roll-out. If we do these things, we have some hope of getting society back to a level of normality as soon as possible.

See this speech in context