Dáil debates

Thursday, 27 May 2021

Health (Amendment) Act 2021: Motion

 

1:10 pm

Photo of David CullinaneDavid Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to have a debate on this issue. As long ago as last March or April, the National Public Health Emergency Team, NPHET, and public health officials were making the case for mandatory hotel quarantine and mandatory PCR testing. All the while they were making that case, most of us, albeit not all of us, in the Opposition were calling for the public health advice to be implemented in full.

The reasons we gave for this at the time were that mandatory quarantine would be helpful in containing the virus and that it was necessary to prevent the importation of new variants. It is interesting that, in his opening remarks, the Minister rightly went out of his way to acknowledge that mandatory hotel quarantine has worked. It has helped to contain the virus and prevent some new strains entering the State. That is a vindication of NPHET's position and the position of those of us in the Opposition who called for the measure. In the context of this debate, it has to be pointed out that there are many in government, in both Fine Gael and the Minister's party, who have sought to undermine mandatory hotel quarantine from the beginning. They never wanted it to be in place, despite its effectiveness, which the Minister mentioned, and despite it being one of the many tools needed to keep us safe. I would argue that it is also a tool that ensures that we can protect and jealously guard the reopenings we are now beginning to see. Non-essential retail reopened last week. People were going back to work. We will see further reopenings next week and over the following weeks. Mandatory quarantine is one of the ingredients and tools that were necessary over recent months and which will be necessary over the coming months to keep us safe. That has to be said.

As one of those who argued that mandatory hotel quarantine should be in place, I accept that the situation changes as more people are vaccinated. Like any other public health measures, it must be re-evaluated at all times. We obviously have to listen to the public health advice. Our public health advisers will evaluate the status of Covid and its variants at any particular time and give advice to the Government. Nobody wants mandatory quarantine to remain in place a minute or even a second longer than is necessary. It is the same with any of the public health measures. As we see many of these unwind - and we will see more unwind over the coming weeks and months - it is probable that we will also see an easing of mandatory hotel quarantining, which is probably necessary. I imagine that will happen in tandem with the coming on stream and going live of the EU Covid certificate. New arrangements will be agreed between member states to facilitate travel within the European Union before these arrangements go live in August. In addition, as more people get vaccinated, we can better protect ourselves against any variants.

The question then is at what stage will mandatory quarantine be required and for what countries. As more people are vaccinated and as the EU Covid certificate comes into play, we will reach a point at which quarantine should only be used in situations in which people are coming in from countries where incidence rates are very high or where there is a high risk of any of the new variants, either those already in circulation or further new variants or mutations that may emerge, entering the State. In some parts of the world, these conditions prevail. That is how I see this working out.

All of these measures have been very difficult. Anyone who has had to quarantine for 14 days will know that it is an inconvenience and very difficult. Nobody wants to see any of these measures put in place but the facts speak for themselves and we have seen that, as a consequence of the introduction of this measure, a number of cases of the new variants have been captured, as have cases of the existing variants, in people entering the State. That is precisely why this measure was brought in - to prevent and to protect.

A number of restrictions are to be eased over the coming weeks and there are businesses open for the first time in months. We can all celebrate that. Businesses last week were opening their doors for the first time in many months and, in some cases, a year. Many people were going back to work. It does great things for their mental health to go back to work, which is what they want to do. People are also able to enjoy more outdoor activities. That is what we all want to see. We have to protect all of those opportunities in the weeks and months ahead. We have seen what happens in this State if we take our eye off the ball. We have seen what has happened in other countries in recent weeks and months when they have taken their eyes off the ball. It would be ludicrous for any state to ignore the threat these new variants present. It is not the case that the virus has gone and the pandemic is at an end. Unfortunately, the virus is still here and still spreading and people are still contracting it.

Luckily, as a result of the roll-out of the vaccine, the fact that, as the Minister pointed out, 50% of the adult population have now received at least their first dose and, most importantly, the fact that great numbers of those most at risk in the wider population have now been fully vaccinated, we now have these opportunities to reopen and we are now in that very strong position. Surely our priority must be to jealously guard all of that. How reckless would it be to completely disregard mandatory quarantine and to say that it is not necessary even when dealing with arrivals from countries in which there is high risk of new variants or in which the infection is spreading at very dangerous levels? That is not where the majority of people's thinking is. My best guess is that the number of people being inconvenienced by mandatory hotel quarantine will reduce over the coming weeks and months as fewer people will have to quarantine because of the roll-out of the vaccine in their home countries.

That brings me to the EU Covid certificate. There has been an awful lot of debate as to how this will actually work. I welcome that it is to be in both digital and paper format. That is important. The three elements to the certificate are proof of vaccination, a PCR test or an antibody test. Antigen testing is also an option. There are different opinions on antigen testing but I see a role for it. We have called for a pilot roll-out of antigen testing for travel on the Dublin to London routes over recent months. We have asked the Minister for Transport to look at this but he has not done so. It would have been important in collecting data on its effectiveness. I remind the Minister that over recent months, when we were pleading with the Minister for Transport to put in place mandatory quarantine and proper and robust travel checks and to do all of what the Minister has said mandatory hotel quarantining has done, we got pushback from the highest levels of government. We are still getting pushback on the issue of antigen testing. It is not a panacea. It cannot be seen as a replacement for all of the other things we need to do. However, surely there is a role for it, especially as we hope to begin to reopen air travel, at the very least within the European Union.

We obviously also need to have a relationship with Britain. It will be very important to have connectivity with London and other parts of Britain. If people are to be able to fly to Spain, Italy or France, people will obviously also want to be able to fly to Britain. That bilateral engagement between Ireland and Britain is going to be very important. This becomes even more important because of the North.

Will the Minister please ensure that there is sufficient engagement with his colleague and counterpart in the North? I would say the same to the Minister for Transport. There has to be engagement with Ministers in the North and with the Executive at the highest level in respect of all of this. Today we hear that, in the North, the vaccine is now being made available to all age cohorts. It is far ahead of this State in this respect. While the North will rightly be celebrating more reopenings and while it will be ahead of us, it is important that we join up the responses as best we can. That will have to come from the genuine engagement of the Minister.

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