Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak to the Health (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2021, which enables us to reopen indoor hospitality, pubs, cafés, restaurants and other licensed venues safely, sustainably and in line with public health advice. It is imperfect but it is better than any of the alternatives currently on offer to us.

One alternative is opening to all people, against public health advice, and making the Delta variant wave much worse and more dangerous than it will be. A second alternative is to wait until we achieve population immunity, which might come in September, when all adults are fully vaccinated, but, equally, it may not because teenagers and children will not be fully vaccinated by then. We do not know what will happen when it comes to immunity waning and variants. It is on that basis that I recommend this Bill, which is a middle and safe path, much better than any of the alternatives on offer.

Covid-19 has a tendency to rip up our plans and NPHET's recent advice on indoor hospitality is a case in point. The Government has at all times sought to adapt quickly to the pandemic and strike the right balance between lives and livelihoods. The system we are proposing is not perfect but it is the best way to open indoor hospitality in light of the current public health advice and epidemiological position. In this debate, I ask Members opposing the Bill to outline their alternative policy. As I mentioned, I only see two alternatives, with hospitality either remaining shut indefinitely until we achieve population immunity, whenever that happens, or there is a full reopening with no restrictions, with all the risks that come with that. Those alternatives are inferior to the plan being presented by the Government today.

We cannot just wait for population immunity. Some people say this will be achieved when all adults are vaccinated by September, but in reality we have no idea if that will be the case. Children under 12 cannot yet be vaccinated and we do not know what will happen with future variants or in the context of the immunity afforded by vaccination waning. Waiting for herd immunity is therefore not a plan.

In this Bill, we are taking a similar approach to what Denmark and Germany have been doing for some time and what France, Portugal and Greece have now announced they will also do.

We are taking a middle course that can reopen indoor hospitality in a safe and sustainable way. Of course I very much wish that we had longer to engage with the Opposition on the Bill's contents but I hope that Members will appreciate it was not possible under the circumstances. Thousands of jobs and businesses depend on us passing this legislation and we owe it to those business owners and workers to progress it as soon as possible. It means that businesses can reopen, more people can go back to work and people can enjoy the benefits of being vaccinated, to return to socialising indoors and not just in private homes.

Officials from several Departments will seek to keep the Opposition and representatives of the hospitality sector informed of developments. I particularly want to thank all of those involved, the staff and the Deputies in the House, employer representative groups, unions representing the hospitality sector and all of our civil servants for the work they have done to help us put this plan together and in helping this legislation reach the floor of the House today.

The Bill establishes a framework to allow indoor hospitality to reopen in the safest way possible and it will be subject to a sunset clause and review in October. To keep people safe, for a short time we are making a distinction between those who are vaccinated and those who are not. I hope that people will not see this as discrimination. This is a public health measure. It will be temporary and hopefully just in place for a few months.

Just as we asked older people to stay at home at the start of the pandemic when they were the most at risk, we are asking those who are most at risk now, namely, those who are unvaccinated of all age groups to avoid congregating indoors at least until they are fully vaccinated. That time for adults is much closer now. This week the online portal is open to all adults, which is everyone aged 18 to 34. The option of receiving a vaccine through a pharmacy has been open for a couple of weeks now. For any adult who is not vaccinated yet it is only a matter of weeks and we anxiously await advice from the national immunisation advisory committee, NIAC, that will allow us to start vaccinating people aged between 12 and 17 as well.

On the enforcement issue, the regulations will enable checks on a proprietor in order that he or she has a process in place to ascertain that people coming into the premises are vaccinated. This will involve the existing practice of keeping a record of contact details and adding an additional check that he or she has verified that the person has a valid certificate. The premises can be closed if they do not have verifiable evidence of this. I must be clear, however, that although enforcement measures will be in place this is not about catching anyone out. We are certainly not going to see compliance officers going table to table checking people's passes. The public health measures are there to protect people and generally it has not been necessary to be heavy-handed in enforcement in Ireland. We have seen people coming together to do what is best for themselves and, most importantly, what is best for each other. This legislation will, however, provide the back-up of legal enforcement measures should they be required.

The guidelines for hospitality already require that the name and number of the customer is retained for the purposes of contact tracing. Cafes, restaurants and pubs will now have to keep an additional record that shows their customers have produced evidence of the vaccine certificate or that they have had Covid in the past six months. The detailed operational arrangements will be a matter for regulation in the first instance and many of the issues and questions arising will be dealt with in the guidelines that are being worked on with the sector.

Those who are fully vaccinated have already started to receive emails and letters on their vaccine status. This will continue over the coming week. Of course, the safety of workers is of paramount importance. Throughout the pandemic we have done our best to protect workers as best we can and the safety of workers and staff was an important consideration in the formulation of the system. The Irish Congress of Trade Unions, ICTU, was involved with discussions with the sector last week and will continue to be involved. All of the health and safety protocols will still apply to indoor hospitality, including physical distancing, mask wearing in designated areas, and hand sanitising. My Department and the Health and Safety Authority, in conjunction with other health experts and the Labour Employer Economic Forum, continue to update the work safety protocol as required. This protocol and Fáilte Ireland's guidelines place a strong emphasis on the importance of implementing effective ventilation in all premises where the public and workers congregate, including increasing airflow, air extraction systems and the use of CO2 monitors. Improving ventilation will be part of the operational guidelines to be published by Fáilte Ireland and will continue to form part of the Government's communications campaign.

As I said earlier, I am aware that this legislation is not ideal but it is our best, and perhaps our only, opportunity this summer to get the hospitality sector open indoors as well as outdoors and to ensure that it continues to stay open throughout the Delta wave, which has now started, and the winter period thereafter.

I ask colleagues to not lose sight of what we are doing here. This legislation is enabling indoor hospitality to reopen for customers for the first time this year. Ireland is one of the last countries in Europe to do so, if not the last. Keeping the sector closed would severely impact on people's livelihoods and the ability to provide for themselves and their families. We have taken on board the views and concerns that we have heard from others. This is why there is a sunset clause that this legislation falls in October if it is not renewed by the Dáil and the Seanad. The legislation does provide for us to allow access to people who have been tested by PCR and antigen test. The enabling provision is in the legislation and therefore that is not a reason to vote against this Bill. We will need to get the system set up and we will need further scientific advice from the rapid testing group before we can proceed with this but that option is in the Bill. Antigen testing or PCR testing as an alternative is definitely not a reason to vote against this legislation. Staff will be exempted. Of course if people who work in one of these environments are not fully vaccinated they will be able to have a drink or a meal before or after their shift as they always had.

The Government's objective over the coming weeks is to ensure that the increase in cases that will happen as a result of the Delta wave does not lead to such a significant increase in hospitalisations and ICU admissions that it puts our health services under undue pressure. We can see from Scotland, Israel and Northern Ireland, where Delta has been dominant for months, that this may be possible but it will not be easy.

This virus has caused a lot of suffering and caused the deaths of more than 5,000 people in the State. Because of the vaccine programme, we are in a very different phase of the pandemic now. If there are 800 cases per day, or even 1,000 or 2,000 cases per day, it does not mean what it did in January. The link between cases, hospitalisations and deaths has been weakened but it is not yet broken. We believe it is possible to get through the Delta wave without reimposing restrictions or going back into lockdown. We will need some restrictions and we will need to put in place measures such as this. If things go well, we may not have to use this system for very long. In the meantime we might be able to use it to reopen other sectors currently closed such as live music, the arts, leisure and entertainment facilities. On this basis, I commend the Bill to the House.

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