Paul Donnelly (Dublin West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the motion. The Covid pandemic has provided us with enormous challenges, and I acknowledge that there are no easy answers and that every decision made on this is a very difficult one that has to be made. With those challenges, however, comes a huge responsibility on those making those decisions to consult as many people as possible to get as wide an agreement as possible on the opening up of our country. Unfortunately, the experience over the past 24 hours has shown that the Government has failed miserably on that count. I find it incomprehensible that, even though the challenges of how we open up our country across the Thirty-two Counties is well signposted, the Government has chosen not to consult all the stakeholders. We have heard that over the past 24 hours, with various groups having come out to say they did not know they were to do X, Y or Z.

Yesterday, as my colleague said, in the health committee Sinn Féin and others asked that the committee be allowed to do its job and to scrutinise the emergency legislation that was written hastily over the weekend. This was denied by Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party, which combined to vote to ram the legislation through without anyone getting a chance to analyse its effects on those in our community, both young and old and those in the middle. It is not fair that workers, mostly younger people and those who are on very low pay, will have to face the wrath of people as they try to explain how a 17-year-old is allowed in to have his or her meal while his or her 19-year-old or 20-year-old brother or sister is not allowed and the myriad other conflicting messages they will have to explain. They will be on the front line - at the door, at the tables, at the bars - trying to explain these conflicting messages.

It is deeply unfair to lock out more than 800,000 young people and it is unfair on all our front-line workers, especially our young front-line workers - our teachers, nurses, gardaí, social care workers, bus drivers and shopworkers. All those people who have worked right throughout the pandemic and who are not able to get vaccines at this time will be locked out of all this. That is fundamentally an unfair thing to do. It is really important we try to keep the social solidarity that has seen us through the worst of times. The industry and people, particularly the workers, have pointed out that this is an unworkable system and leaves those workers in a vulnerable position.

I listened to a radio segment on RTÉ today that revealed that GPs were shocked to hear on the radio that they were to issue certificates or letters to their patients who had contracted Covid since January. One said he nearly crashed the car when he heard the news because he knew their offices would be absolutely inundated today and yesterday with patients ringing them up, and that is what came to pass. People have been ringing up GPs over and over again looking for a Covid letter or certificate. One GP said the practice had to change its phone message to ask people not to call and to say it would not be issuing certificates or letters to patients. GPs made the point that they do not have the capacity to cope with the demand, even if they wanted to or could do what the Government is asking. Approximately 100,000 people have had positive cases of Covid since January 2021. With 1,700 GP practices, this would mean a massive administrative burden on an already overburdened GP and health service that is giving out vaccines at the moment and is under severe pressure in that regard. The service is also trying to catch up on the other people who have been sick and who have reluctantly not gone to their GPs because of Covid.

Unfortunately, the new legislation will be rammed through today. It is ill-thought-out and will create significant difficulties for social cohesion. I ask the Government to take stock and to work with all the stakeholders, not just one sector of an industry.

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