Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I add my voice to the concerns. I note what the European Commissioner said. We have been feeble and inept in applying for funding. Our small and medium-sized businesses have suffered more than anybody else. We have received the second lowest level of EU supports; of the 27 member states, only one is behind us. We are getting crumbs from the table.

I am disappointed that the Taoiseach could not stay and listen to all our views this afternoon. We need to take leadership in this debate. We have had no leadership whatsoever. We need to stand up and speak up. We need to lead our people and give them some hope because they have absolutely no hope.

Chancellor Merkel has decided today that the lockdown plan for Easter should be cancelled and she accepted responsibility for it because she said it would not work.

The WHO said lockdowns will not work. We have had lockdown in Ireland for 200 days. It is penal. We all know what has happened with respect to the clergy even though the Minister for Health, Deputy Donnelly, said in the House that there would be no penal summons. It is shameful how we are treating our people. They need to go back to work and school and to be allowed to live. We must take a leaf from Ms Merkel's book. We need to do more testing.

There is a recovery fund of €750 million available. We need to apply for it and to get our fair share of it, not crumbs. We need to insist on more testing and to allow people to work and live with Covid. I sympathise with those who lost their lives, but people are weary, frustrated, angry and beyond boiling point with the ineptitude and messages every night from Dr. De Gascun and Dr. Ronan Glynn, who are household names now. They roll out the messaging through RTÉ. It is media propaganda to frighten the people. It is akin to the "To Hell and or to Connacht" that we had here during Cromwell's time. The way this Government has treated our people is shameful. There is a dearth of democracy. There is no democratic accountability. NPHET is running the country. Since the Taoiseach took office, what NPHET says goes. If it says jump, the Taoiseach says "How high?", and all the members of Government are nodding behind him and backing him up.

Ministers need to go to Europe and get us our fair share of the vaccines and our fair share of what we need from Europe rather than pandering to Europe and being good Europeans. I call for an end to the lockdown. It is terrorising our people. Let the people live. I call for common sense and engagement with the Opposition leaders, who have not met with the Taoiseach since last November. We have been shut out of the process. As I said, there is a democratic deficit. There is a lack of democracy and accountability to this House or, by extension, to the people. It is shameful. It is shambolic and it is time it changed because people will not accept this for much longer.

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