Dáil debates

Thursday, 27 May 2021

Health (Amendment) Act 2021: Motion

 

1:20 pm

Photo of Darren O'RourkeDarren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak in this debate. I echo Deputy Cullinane's comments. Mandatory hotel quarantine was a very significant and important public health intervention. It was not a decision that was taken lightly, nor should it have been.

It was, and is, controversial but as outlined, it was a significant tool in response to the risk of importation of the virus. In many respects, it was an inevitability given the many failures by the Government to get ahead of things, to address and put in place systems that would minimise the risk of the importation of the virus and would give people confidence that the limited amount of international travel that was permitted was happening safely. I point specifically to issues such as the introduction of the passenger locator form, on a voluntary basis initially, but which the Government was forced to make mandatory, in respect of which the follow-up was pathetic throughout. That undermined public confidence. The same applies in regard to testing. It is literally incredible that we did not introduce mandatory testing until there were in the region of 8,000 cases per day. That was reckless. At that stage, mandatory hotel quarantine became an absolute necessity, if it had not been previously As has been outlined, it has played an important role. It was only ever envisaged to be a temporary measure. The circumstances today are very different from what they were in January, February and March, when it was being introduced. Had the necessary preparations been made in advance, I do not believe we would have had the initial issues in terms of the anomalies, contradictions and difficult and hard cases that presented, many of which were resolved in a sensible and common-sense way.

The significant vaccine roll-out in Ireland, the United States, across the European Union and in Britain, in particular, presents a major opportunity for the future with regard to reopening international travel but it has to be done carefully. There are risks in terms of variants of concern. I agree with Deputy Cullinane's analysis on how we should work forward in a phased way to relax these restrictions. The priority needs to be the roll-out of the digital green certificate. We need to be in a position to adopt it as early as possible and, in that regard, to prioritise the common travel area, the European Union and the United States. There is need for an explicit indication of what criteria will apply. Obviously, variants of concern are just that, that is, variants of concern, but the risk factor changes as we get more people vaccinated and the information is generated. We need clarity and transparency in order that people are aware of the criteria that apply. I know that is a frustration for people. Hopefully, we do not have to live with the constraints of mandatory hotel quarantine for a lot longer.

I want to emphasise a point that has been made in terms of our Covid restrictions around international travel, that is, the opportunity of antigen testing. My own background is in diagnostics. I worked in that area for 15 years. At different times and for different reasons, we have argued that a single point in time PCR test is of limited use. We have argued for post-arrival testing. Professor Mark Ferguson outlines the opportunity that exists to improve on that protection with serial antigen testing. In doing that, we can potentially reduce the cost of the overall testing, reduce the cost of international travel and improve on the system we have in place in terms of providing protections for people. It might also present an opportunity in terms of the issue of quarantine at home and mandatory hotel quarantine. We should be innovative and progressive and test these systems and be ahead of the game in relation to them.

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