Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

You and me both.

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for the opportunity to say a few words this afternoon. I have listened carefully to what people have said. I must confess that, the more I listen and the more reasons I see to vote against the Bill, the more reasons I see to agree with the old backbenchers of destiny who come in and trot out all of their reasons for saying this is a bad idea even though they will stomp through the lobbies tonight and support it without a bother on them. They say that it is not a good idea, and it is not. It is discriminatory.

On Monday, we listened to a succession of Ministers and Ministers of State contradicting one another as regards the role of GPs. What is clear is that, while they did not have a clue between them, the GPs were very up front in saying that there had been no discussion, much less agreement, with them. After all the Government's fine words and rounds of applause for people on the front line, they were ignored and bypassed.

As was pointed out by Dr. Mary Favier, one of the GPs listening almost crashed his car because it came as such a shock.

To be clear, I want hospitality to reopen. I want it to reopen fully and I want that to happen as quickly as is possible but it has to be safe. That means safe for business owners, customers and the workers. It has to be safe for everybody. That means using antigen or PCR testing as a means of entry for those who will be left outside because, through no fault of their own, they are not vaccinated.

We have listened for months to the mantra we are all in this together but we are not. This legislation proves that. It puts into law the very opposite of us all being in this together. Hospitality workers are desperate to get back to work but they want to be safe. They will be mixing with vaccinated and unvaccinated people. That is fundamentally unfair. There are so many anomalies contained within this legislation. I hope the Minister will address some of them.

I want to touch briefly on the issue of indoor play camps for kids. This has been described by Ms Jen Hogan as a blatant disregard for children, once again. Let us not kid ourselves. These camps are vital for children who have been looking forward to them for weeks now - of course they are - but they also make a substantial contribution to the childcare needs of working parents. The Minister will not be unaware of this. I am aware of this. We all know this is a fact. They make a contribution to the childcare arrangements.

I agree with Ms Jen Hogan when she says this will fall disproportionately on women. That is not good enough. Once again, just like the communions and confirmations, this was an afterthought and a cruel one at that. It is ridiculous to suggest that children will be safer in the pub than they will be in indoor camps or that they can be in an indoor camp in a hotel but not in an indoor camp with the kids with whom they have been in school for the past number of months in their own locality. It makes no sense and I hope the Minister will reverse this cruel decision.

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