Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

Tá Aontú go hiomlán in aghaidh an Bhille seo. Má chuirfear an Bille seo i bhfeidhm, beidh cead ag an Stát idirdhealú a dhéanamh, le haghaidh an chéad uair riamh, go dlíthiúil. Beidh an t-idirdhealú sin dírithe ar dhaoine óga, daoine le hailléirgí agus daoine atá faiteach mar gheall ar an vacsaín seo agus atá ag fanacht le níos mó taighde fadtéarmach a bheith ann. Impím ar an Rialtas stop a chur leis an mBille seo.

The Irish Government has taken the most extreme path of any government in the European Union over the past number of months. We have had the longest workplace closures in the whole of Europe. Some of our schools have been closed for longer than any others in Europe. Sectors of our health service have suffered longer closures than their counterparts in the rest of Europe. Even in the eye of a construction and housing crisis, we have had longer closures of construction than anywhere else in Europe.

Religious services have been closed for longer than anywhere else in Europe. Indeed, for a large part of the past year and a half, Ireland, North Korea and Saudi Arabia were of the same sentiment regarding the banning of religious services. Again, when it comes to indoor hospitality, Ireland is the only country in Europe where this is banned right now. North Macedonia was the only other country where indoor hospitality was banned and it opened that two weeks ago.

There are 20,000 pubs in the State and about 200,000 people working in the hospitality sector. Many of these businesses have been closed for 450 days. They are hammered. The workers are hammered. They are being pushed into poverty and debt. Many are zombie business that will fall if the Government supports are pulled away. The hospitality sector is over a barrel. It is desperate to reopen and will naturally do anything tor reopen if it can. However, the Government is taking another step no other country in Europe would do and is now introducing a vaccine pass. It is discrimination plain and simple. It is two fingers to the young people of this country. The Government is saying to young people in this country that they can bring customers their pints and chicken wings but that if they want to socialise, they should get out. It is absolutely disgraceful. Will the Minister detail what people are to do if they have an allergy to this particular vaccine? I spoke to people in the Department yesterday. To paraphrase them, and not wishing to disrespect them, their answer was that if people have an allergy then it is tough. That is an incredible situation for a country in 2021. The European Union, when it was looking at its travel certificate, discussed the idea of a vaccine-only travel certificate but countries within the European Union simply would not allow it because of its discriminatory elements as well.

More than a year ago, we in Aontú called on the Government to put antigen testing in place. Seven months the EU ago said it was time for antigen testing to be put in place. Now, the Government is finally putting a working group together to discuss the issue of antigen testing. It is incredible to see this Government tie itself up in knots of confusion and continuously trying to reinvent the wheel at a massive cost to this society. The truth of the matter is this is a Government of chaos and bewilderment. The Government is captured. It simply cannot make a decision. Its default answer has been to follow the science but the laws of science do not change when they cross the Irish Sea. Every other country in Europe is following the science and doing so safely but in a radically different direction to the one the Government is heading in. The one thing NPHET might achieve is bringing down this Government with what is going on. I welcome that today, most of the Opposition has finally woken up. For the past 12 months, most of Sinn Féin and the other parties of the Opposition have practically given the Government a confidence-and-supply deal and allowed it to do whatever it wants.

Aontú is a pragmatic political party and we have sought to be constructive. We want to get hospitality reopened safely. We have submitted many amendments to this particular Bill to try to address the inherent injustice that exists in it but of course the undemocratic nature of the Government means it will never see the light of day. The debate on the amendments will be guillotined, probably before the second amendment is reached. We have circulated a letter to all Members of the Houses, which we are sending to Uachtarán na hÉireann, Michael D Higgins, requesting that this Bill be referred to the Supreme Court. I urge Deputies and Senators from across the political spectrum to co-sign this. It is possible for Government Deputies to do this as well. Even at this late stage, we are asking the Government to follow best practice and add pharmacy-based antigen testing to stop the discriminatory nature of this Bill.

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