Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising an important and worthy issue. I too acknowledge the extraordinary work done by front-line workers, in particular, in the battle against the pandemic. That was vividly illustrated in a recent RTÉ programme through the stories and journeys that both patients and front-line healthcare workers went through in the latest wave of the pandemic, which was a severe wave that impacted very significantly on health, the severity of illness and mortality. We are very mindful of that, and the Government intends to recognise the front-line healthcare workers in respect of the extraordinary contribution and commitment they have made to the fight against the pandemic.

The precise mechanisms and manner in which this will be determined will have to be worked out in consultation with the social partners, while also bearing in mind some key workers in the private sector who have made an outstanding contribution as well, particularly in periods of severe lockdown. We want to do this in a non-divisive way and to consult the partners, perhaps though the Labour Employer Economic Forum, LEEF, to discuss this further and get it right. I acknowledge the point the Deputy is making and the Government is on the record as saying that this is something it intends to do. We want to acknowledge the very strong contribution that has been made, particularly by front-line healthcare workers.

I caution that we are by no means out of this pandemic. Already, I detect that people are getting a sense that because the numbers are coming down, we are somehow emerging from it immediately or something similar. The hospital numbers are still higher than they were at the peak of the second wave. The variant is the big problem. Community transmission is still at between 11% and 15%, which is high. Close contacts and the spread of the disease are much more prevalent now. It is more transmissible because of the presence of the B117 variant. We cannot lose sight of that because if we let this go, the virus will continue. We must be very careful. We are making very good progress against the pandemic in terms of the strategy of getting the numbers down, especially the hospital numbers. They are coming down. The number in intensive care units, ICU, is coming down, as are case numbers. Remarkably, the vaccination impact has been extraordinary in hospital and nursing home settings, but we must stick with it, especially in the coming weeks, to get the numbers further down.

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