Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am glad to have the opportunity to speak on this important Bill. When these powers were first brought in there was a need for exceptional emergency powers, but we do not need them now. We have vaccines and the vaccine roll-out is going well. It was going so well in Killarney that it has been paused for three days until Friday. It is going well on our side of the country, except that we are bringing people from Cork and Waterford to Killarney and people from Rathmore, Gneeveguilla and east Kerry are going up to Limerick, which does not make sense. I am asking for that matter to be rectified because people from Waterford came to Killarney again on Monday, even though I raised the issue with the Taoiseach last week.

Instead of extending these powers, I ask the Minister to focus his attention on the mental and physical health of people all over the country. With regard to mental health, the curtailing of civil liberties, for which our people gave their lives and their blood more than 100 years ago, has gone on for long enough now. The vaccine is dealing with the virus and hopefully will get the better of it. On physical health, patients have had cancer treatment impeded, held up and held off. People are very worried because if cancer treatment is not carried out when it should be carried out, hours can perhaps be the difference between a person staying alive and not staying alive. I ask the Minister for Health to focus his attention on that.

The Minister said that pubs and restaurants can resume outdoor dining and hotels can resume indoor dining. I am not upset at the hotels being able to have their customers inside, but I am upset for the ordinary punters who are told they must eat and drink outside in this inclement weather. Maybe the Minister will tell us that he will sort out the weather also.

In the Six Counties people can eat and drink inside bars and restaurants. Ordinary people just want to have a pint or a meal in their local bar or restaurant. If the Minister insists that it is only hotels that can accommodate this, people from all around rural County Kerry will go into the towns of Kenmare and Killarney just to get in from the rain and into hotels to have a pint. Spreading the crowd around like this is not on at all. The Minister must trust the people and advise them. Holding on to the restrictions until next November, or maybe even February, is not good enough.

I have a question on NPHET. Dr. Tony Holohan is advising against antigen testing. Is another member of NPHET involved in testing? Does that member have a testing enterprise or is he involved in a company that produces test kits, which are in competition with antigen testing? I have asked this question of the Taoiseach a couple of times before and he told me there was no such member of NPHET. I have been told there is.

It is very unfair that pubs and restaurants will not know the details of the restrictions until the very last minute. The Minister said he will tell us on Friday, but I am afraid he will not even do it then, although he knows the details. It is wrong to assume that publicans can bring in beer and restaurants can bring in food at very short notice. It is not like that. They must get staff, prepare and buy stock. The Minister must give them a proper chance.

I cannot vote for the extension of these exceptional powers. The exceptional need that was there when these measures were first brought in is not there now.

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