Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

In fairness, this is related to small businesses, which are at the heart of this crisis and the target of much of what is in this Bill, if the truth be told. There has to be a solution brought forward. That solution has to follow what the likes of Denmark and Finland did in their countries. They looked at the science, made decisions and have opened up safely for more than two months now.

Hospitality workers are a sector of society significantly targeted by this Bill. Hospitality workers are being massively stuffed. It is interesting there is a by-election on 8 July. In many ways, that by-election was timed to take place just two or three days after hospitality was meant to open up. We have a crisis in small to medium-sized enterprises in hospitality. The Dublin Bay South constituency, for example, has hundreds of pubs, restaurants, clubs and hotels and thousands of workers who should be working in those areas but are not at the moment. The reason they are not is the Government cannot make a decision.

It is absolutely the job of the National Public Health Emergency Team, NPHET, to give advice on this issue, but it has very tight terms of reference. Its terms of reference are purely related to Covid and nothing else. It does not take cancer care or any other healthcare into consideration. It does not even touch on enterprise, small business or finance, which we are discussing. The Government has the terms of reference to look at those particular issues and the broader terms of reference to make sure that everything is balanced within society, but it has now outsourced complete decision-making on this issue to NPHET. I do not mean this in a personal way, but Micheál Martin has a track record, politically, of not wanting to make hard decisions. He has a track record, going back many years, of setting up committees and having reports written. That information stands for itself. However, as a result of that inability to make a decision, we have whole sectors of the economy and society that are stuffed, economically.

The truth of the matter is that cases of Covid will rise again when we come to September and October. There is no doubt about that. This is a coronavirus, which has a seasonal profile and we will see increased cases in the second half of this year. To a business, a week in July is worth seven weeks in November and December. Many of these businesses will only make their money at this time of the year. It is very sad to hear of Government backbenchers kicking up a storm at the moment, but people need to stand up and put their votes where their mouths are. Just a couple of weeks ago, legislation on emergency powers went through this Dáil and all those Deputies voted for the Government's legislation. Those same Deputies are now kicking up having voted for that legislation.

The main Opposition party has sat on the fence for the last number of months on this issue. SF should stand for "sitting on a fence" when it comes to this key issue for people throughout the country. People who advocated zero-Covid are now hopping to the other side of the fence very quickly. There are unbelievable situations where political parties such as the Social Democrats, Labour Party and others are sticking their fingers in the air, finding out which way the wind is blowing and changing on this and, all the while, a sector of society is absolutely busted.

I heard today the Government is putting antigen testing in place. The organisation now in place to work out an antigen test system in this country has not got its terms of reference. This is six months, or more, after the EU gave the go-ahead for it. It is around 12 months since many countries, and some private companies, got it together to do antigen testing. Antigen testing could be run to help these small businesses that are in this desperate situation at the moment. I welcome the financial supports for these small businesses but, in many ways, they are now zombie businesses. If many of these businesses do not get to function this summer, and they still have not properly opened by October, supports or no supports they are toast and are going down the drain. Once those supports are pulled away from these zombie businesses they, and the people who work for them, will fall.

Workers in the hospitality sector used to be the people People Before Profit and Solidarity stood for, but not any more. These workers are allowed to swing for themselves. We have a situation where they have been pushed into poverty and debt and are having significant difficulties keeping roofs over their heads at the moment. I welcome the supports we are providing for them but one thing that would actually support them so they, and aviation industry workers, could go back to work, is to have antigen testing available and functioning now. It is incredible that they have been marching on the streets and yet antigen testing still remains in the future tense. Why does antigen testing remain in the future tense for this Government? How can it be, after so long and when so much damage has been wrought in these small businesses throughout the country, that the word "antigen" only exists in the future tense in this country? If I hear another Minister going on the radio to say, "We are looking into antigen testing", my brain may explode, along with the rest of the country. It is just so hard to believe.

My sister, Mairéad Tóibín, is a pharmacist. She says the pharmacists of this country could run antigen testing on behalf of people. People could go to a pharmacist on the day they want to go for a pint, or a feed, get their antigen test done, get a stamp from the pharmacist and away they would go. There seems to be a complete lack of practicality and urgency from this Government at this moment in time. I have good regard for the Minister. I know he has a strong interest in doing the right thing for his constituency and the country, but I am still shocked that nobody is cracking the whip, the pressure is not coming on and anger is not translating into action by the Government.

The cost of this Bill is another aspect of it. It has not been discussed at all. Right now, we are running up to approximately €40 billion in costs as regards all the extra Government expenditure over the last 15 months. Some €40 billion starts to put this crisis in the same ballpark as the banking crisis. It puts it in the same space as the banking crisis, as a cost to the State. It is different at this moment in time in that there is access to credit to allow the flow of money to go where it is needed and, do not get me wrong, I am not arguing for one second that any of these supports are pulled because I am not. I am saying this debt will have repercussions and is not cost free. It will steal from future investment. Mark my words, we will watch cuts to investment in housing, health, infrastructure and the environment over the next ten years on the back of this debt. As true as night follows day, debt equals a reduction in spending. Typically, under Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael's political logic, it also includes an increase in taxation for those who are most vulnerable and cannot afford it.

My instinct on this is very simple. One of the ways we can stop this debt from further increasing is to allow people go back to work. People want to go back to work and they can do safely. Aontú has councillors in the North of Ireland. Our councillor in Derry, Emmet Doyle, came down to help us recently with our election campaign and was dumbfounded that indoor dining and pubs were closed. They have been open for two months in the North of Ireland and not a bother on them if truth be told. While much of the focus is, rightly, on extra supports and their extension to people throughout the country, we cannot ignore the logic of getting people back to work. It is the elephant in the room in all these discussions. Keeping people away from work leads to poverty and debt, while getting people back to work leads to them getting on with their lives. Do not get me wrong, I am not saying for one second that restrictions may not be necessary in future. All I am saying is that, today, conditions do not exist in this country for the restrictions the Government is interested in.

There are 44 people with Covid in hospital in this State. All of those people could fit into any house in this country. There are plenty of hospitals with no Covid cases, yet cancer, mental health, heart disease and stroke services are not fully operational. It is an incredible situation.

Let us keep the antennae of cautiousness well up, operational and focused and let us listen to the science, but let us operate under the same science as the rest of Europe. There is only one science. There is not a European version of it and an Irish version of it. There is one science and the rest of Europe has managed to plug into the logic of it, that is, to be careful but to live as well.

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