Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Forgive me if I avoid niceties in the two minutes and ten seconds available to me. The Minister spoke about the role of pharmacists. It is emerging that pharmacists learned about it this morning when the Minister went on "Morning Ireland".

Then we learned there are only some approved pharmacists so it is not a question of all pharmacists being involved. We understand there are no approved pharmacists in Connemara.

I stood up in the House in March of last year and gave my full support to draconian legislation on the basis of full and frank disclosure and no spin. What we have got since has been spin, more spin and then "unspin". This week, which marks the lowest point in my political career, I lost all faith – I say that most reluctantly – when the Minister came out with a statement that only vaccinated people could go to restaurants, pubs and so on. I find that shocking and unacceptable. It lays bare the worth of the rhetoric to the effect that we are all in this together. We never have been. Nursing homes were certainly not in it together. I did not need "RTÉ Investigates" last night to tell me there were problems in nursing homes in early 2020. We knew there would be because we have privatised and segmented our public services. We have segmented knowledge. We are here today with a little discussion and a certain amount of information on vaccination, but we have no overall discussion. I have said before that I do not entirely blame the Minister for that but I certainly blame the three unwise men at the top. We have had no discussion on the cost of vaccination and the cost of the indemnity. We are facing circumstances in which we need a passport. This morning, the Minister tells us that digital passports will be posted out. How people are going to get those under the Office of the Taoiseach, I do not know. I find the whole thing unacceptable.

Respite services have never been restored to Galway. Those between the ages of 60 and 69 have been told that they will go to the bottom of the list. The information coming out is that they should have mixed vaccines, that is, the AstraZeneca vaccine they got with no choice followed by a different one that is much more effective.

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