Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome this motion and I thank the Rural Independent Group for tabling it. The mantra over the last 15 months has been that we are all in this together. However, this circus continues. When I was a gouger I remember the Pope saying to people in Galway: “Young people of Ireland, I love you”. This Government has sent a clear message by bringing in this legislation that it does not love the young people.

Last night I spoke to a woman who telephoned me about her youngster whose birthday is in two weeks’ time. The mother and father are vaccinated. One week, they will be able to bring the youngster into the pub but the following week, because of a birthday, the youngster will not be eligible. The madness in that is unbelievable. At the moment, a person who is 16, 17, or 18 years of age and who has not had a vaccine could be serving inside a pub, or they could be 20, 22, or 25 years of age for that matter. However, their mates will be blocked from going in.

We are going to cause a ferocious divide in this country. God help people on doors right around this country. I heard it announced the other day that there has been no collaboration with the UK or Northern Ireland in terms of being able to check who has been vaccinated and who has not. We will go down a road where we say that they can go in. For that matter, anybody living in a Border county can go into a pub with his or her family any day of the week. We talk about staycations but we are going to ship people off to the UK or Northern Ireland where they can have a good weekend or a good holiday. However, they cannot do so here, because they will not be able to go into restaurants.

I cannot understand that the type of mentality, or who has drawn up these types of rules and regulations. To be quite frank about it, the vaccine either works or it does not. Call it out if it does not work. Tell people straight. We do not seem to have any faith in what is going on at the moment. If someone is vaccinated and the vaccine is supposed to deal with the different variants, then why are we basically saying to people that they cannot mix with other people.

People can meet in a hotel or a restaurant people but we are telling youngsters that we are not worried about them. Youngsters who were looking forward to their communion or confirmation are actually allowed into a pub, which is the funny side of all of this. They can have a meal with their parents any night of the week in a restaurant, but they still cannot have their communion or their confirmation. So-called experts tell us that the part they were concerned about was when they would eat. However, they can eat any day of the week, if they are six, eight, ten or 12 years of age, or whatever age they need to be.

I cannot fathom the mentality of who is making up these rules. We are going down a road of pushing everything over to the experts and saying that this is what they said, that these are charts and that these are things that you look at to see how things might go in a worst case or mid-worse case scenario. It is like a mathematical equation. This Dáil does not seem to have the gumption, the guts, or the cop on to bring in stuff. As Deputy Seán Canney said, legislation is not needed; just common sense and for people to act properly. I am clear on that. We need to pay tribute to people around the country, and especially our youth. The media are great at trying to show them up. However, we should look at how the youth behaved throughout this. They should take a bow for what they have done. Once again we are kicking them in the teeth and telling them they are not wanted.

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