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

In the house where I was brought up in Kilgarvan, I was taught that when a person gave their word on something, they stood by it. Regardless of whatever else you had in life, if you did not have your word you had nothing. The Minister and the Government told us when they extended these powers the previous time that they would not look to extend them further. When they got these draconian, extreme, exceptional powers, it was for an exceptional reason at the time, but there is not an exceptional reason now because we have the vaccine and the vaccine is dealing with the matter. To give credit where it is due, the Government is rolling out the vaccine, but it does not have the science or, at least, has given no concrete reason the powers should be extended or that it should be given control to continue to oppress the people and lock them down.

This lockdown has caused severe stress to people with cancer because their treatment has been delayed. This is causing mental illness and isolation. People are gone mad and it has hurt young people and tied them down. It has also affected elderly people, who do not have time on their side. They missed visits from their daughters and sons throughout the lockdowns. They did not see their grandchildren in all that time. One month or one year to a man or woman of 80 years of age is an awful long time when they consider that the clock is against them and they do not have much time left.

Where was the science for keeping people out of churches, as was mentioned, and preventing them from going in when the funeral of their grandmother, father or mother was being held in the church because only ten people were allowed in? In the cathedral in Killarney or the church in Castleisland, the ceilings are four storeys high, there is plenty of space and the doors can be opened. It is as if the Government is against religion. I believe that many members of the Government are against religion of all creeds and description. They think they are gods themselves and they do not believe in any other god.

I cannot see the reason for this extension or for giving the Government control and power to lock down the people any further. Some people could not travel to their local town because it is outside their county. Take the people of Duagh or Moyvane, who could not go to Abbeyfeale. They had to go farther away, to Caslteisland or Tralee, because they could not go beyond their county boundary. Those rules did not make sense. What is the Government doing asking Deputies to vote for this again? It is absolutely unfair on people in rural Ireland.

The Government has stated that people can go into an hotel and have a meal and a drink but they cannot go into the restaurant or pub next door. We were told we would have an outdoor summer, and then when the young congregate after their year in college or whatever, having been told to go out, now they are criticised and castigated. Dr. Tony Holohan said he was shocked and the Taoiseach said he was amazed, and now we are hearing that open spaces are going to be cordoned off and the people are going to be blocked out of them. Dr. Holohan will draw me and the people, even though they are quiet people, to outside the doors of the convention centre.

I appeal to the Government to listen to Deputies who deal with the people. Like other Deputies, I have received hundreds of emails and phone calls asking me not to vote to extend the Government's powers to lock down the country for another three months. After that, they might be extended again to February. It could be a further six or seven months, therefore, of the Government wanting to keep control. The Minister should direct his efforts to the people on the waiting lists for cancer treatment, and the Government at large should do something about the young people who want to get on the road, get their provisional licences or be allowed to drive a tractor to help their fathers and mothers in rural Kerry. It should do something about that and look after the young people because it is not doing that. It just wants to keep control and keep a rein on the young and the elderly. It has frightened the country and many people are in trouble with their mental health because they have been isolated for so long.

It could take an awful long time to get the country back to where it was, but if the Government extends the powers further and keeps the people under lockdown for another six or seven months, the country may never recover. I ask the Government to be sensible and to have some common sense because nobody can tell me how it makes sense, because of science or anything else, to tell people they can have a pint and a meal in an hotel but they cannot do so in a pub or a restaurant. What is wrong with the Government? Whom does it think it is codding or trying to cod? All of us will have to face people at their doors at the next election, but I would not face them if I was going on with the carry-on the Government is going on with.

I apologise for going on but I am very cross. I will not support any further lockdown, but if the need arises, the Government can come back to the House any day and we will support it, even though I did not support the Bill's passage on Second Stage. Even if it is during our summer holidays, I will not mind coming back to the House. I am here to represent the people who elected me and those who did not vote for me. The doors will not be locked. We can come back here any time and debate the matter further if there is a need for a lockdown, but right now there is not and we have vaccines to deal with the virus. The Government is wrong, wrong, wrong, and it is worse it is getting.

See this speech in context