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

The Government has, unfortunately, lost the trust and confidence of the Irish people. Certain people might not like to hear this but the National Public Health Emergency Team, NPHET, has lost the confidence and trust of the Irish people because enough is enough. People have contacted me and the other Deputies in the Rural Independent Group. I heard this evening, for instance, from the musicians in this country, people involved in entertainment, who have not been able to earn a day's or night's pay for a long time. People involved in dancing and music, hoteliers organising weddings and undertakers trying to organise funerals have been affected. No more blank cheques will be given to this Government. Other Deputies might want to come along blindly and loyally, like little puppies, and put up and down their heads and vote in favour of an extension of the powers but, like the story, if they want to jump in the river, I am not going in after them. The people of Ireland have done enough. They have done everything, endured everything that was thrown at them and are now saying that enough is enough.

I will start with the county that I represent. The people of south, mid, north, east and west Kerry are saying that enough is enough. People involved in businesses and retailers who, thankfully, have been able to open their doors in the past few days are highly responsible. They know how to run their businesses in a proper fashion. Absolutely no one can tell me a sensible reason public houses and hotels are not allowed to open. When they were allowed to open, the owners of those businesses ran them in a proper and responsible way. The Government is denying them that right and opportunity now. We have been told that people will go mad if there is music in pubs. Has the Minister taken leave of his senses?

I will turn to people's mental and physical health. Our health system was in a shambles before this crisis. I and other people are sending busloads of people to the North of Ireland for cataract surgery because they cannot have their cataracts removed in the South. People are travelling to the North for treatment to hips, knees and all other types of pains and ailments because of the waiting lists here. That was true before the pandemic. We are now post the pandemic. If, for instance, a GP recognises an abnormality that suggests a danger of breast cancer, it should be dealt with immediately but it is not. That is crazy. Waiting lists have accrued from the pandemic and the fact that everything was shut down for so long. The Minister's answer is that he wants a blank cheque to continue the lockdown. People are in physical and mental pain.

I want to highlight a desperately sad matter that I am awfully sorry to raise here but I feel I must. Parents have asked me what in the name of God politicians are doing to try to help in this situation. We are all acutely aware of the issue of suicide, which has affected every Member of this House. There is not a person who has not been adversely affected by suicide. A new issue has seemed to come to light in the part of the country from which I come. It is happening in Kerry and Cork, where I know an awful lot of what is going on. Young ladies with young families are committing suicide. I cannot tell the Minister it is a direct result of the pandemic and the lockdown but I can tell him that it is happening now in a way it did not previously. It is sad for families that are ripped apart by the loss of a young mother. It is a tragedy of enormous proportions to lose anybody but this seems to be a new development that was not there in the past. It has not happened in my time, in my memory, in the way it is happening now. People are saying they need help, guidance, assistance and normality. They are begging and crying out for normality.

The Government is coming out with silly, nonsensical, stupid things. What genius thought of putting meals on the clock with the time limit of 105 minutes? All that will do is to encourage people, if they are out, to look at the clock and move on somewhere else rather than settling down and staying where they are. Is the Government trying to spread something or contain something? What genius thought it was a good idea? It reminds me of the man with the pint of Guinness in one hand and the cheese sandwich in the other. He was fine, but another person with a pint was some type of criminal if he did not have a cheese sandwich in his hand at the same time.

I thank the people in Kerry who have been dealing with and administering the vaccination programme because they are extremely helpful and kind. They are working diligently in the centres in Kerry. I recognise the work of management all the way down to the people who are actually running the facilities every day. They are doing an excellent job. I must highlight the amount of Kerry people who have been called to Limerick for a vaccine. I have been contacted by people, particularly from the eastern side of the county, who were called to Limerick. When I highlighted their cases, their appointments were changed. The amount of people called to Limerick was frightening. I know of more than 100 such cases. If I know of that many, how many in general were called from Kerry to Limerick? Those sorts of things should not be happening. However, I am grateful for the assistance I got in dealing with those cases.

The Rural Independent Group is going to be seeking to amend this legislation and end its powers on 9 June. The blank cheque will finish on 9 June. I will not be voting to give the Minister a blank cheque for one day later than 9 June.

The Members of the Oireachtas should, of course, get out of this building as if it were on fire. We should go back into Leinster House, where we should have been a long time ago. We could do that in safety. We would be no danger to the staff, ourselves or anyone else.

If we can run our show in an organised and secure way, it shows that the rest of the country can get back to normality as well.

Take one look around. For God's sake, I am looking across and I can barely see the Minister because he is so far away from me. Putting us into this type of auditorium every day does not make sense. We could fit 100 whales in here, never mind a share of Deputies and nobody is here half the time. I do not know where the rest are the rest of the time but they are not in here for debates or anything else. I ask the Minister to get us out of here as soon as possible. Do not mind this talk of us going back to the Dáil in September after the summer because that is ridiculous. We should not have to wait until then.

I ask the Minister to look at the rest of Europe. Look at what other countries and the North of Ireland are doing and then look at us. Think about the hardship that businesses and families are going through. People had deaths in their families and could not have proper funerals because until recently, only ten people could go into the church.

While we all wanted to protect people and do what was right and proper with regard to stopping the spread of the virus, there is such a thing as too far east is west. We are definitely on that ground right now. The Government does not seem to know when to stop. Any Deputy who come in here to vote and says it is all right to continue this for perhaps another six, seven or eight months must be really losing all touch with reality.

Think about what is going on with the public houses and people being told to put up tents, awnings and every type of building outside so that everybody is safe. They might not get the virus but they will definitely get pneumonia. I do not know what country the Minister thinks he is living in but I am living in Ireland. Our temperatures are not suited to outdoor dining.

We have fine public houses with plenty of room. There are lounge bars and different rooms in public houses. People could be inside in heat and comfort instead of putting them into tents, under awnings and into every type of contraption or building the Government is putting them into. They will stay out of the house and go out into the yard only to get sick with some other disease like pleurisy or another misfortune.

For God's sake, will the Government actually get a life and get real about this? I am giving the Minister a strong message from County Kerry. That message is enough is enough. This is finished. People are sick of it and they want to get on with their lives. They are not ignoring that there was a pandemic but we are coming out of it and we are quite safe. Trust the public and the business people. Have a small bit of trust and faith in the people of Ireland who elected us.

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