Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Yes. Everything is in context. We are in a better place. We have had huge buy-in from the community in regard to vaccination and adherence to guidelines and rules, although people were not always happy to do so. That was often uncomfortable for an awful lot of them and for many of us, but we are now at this particular place. On 22 October, we move to the next stage, which will bring us to whatever normality means in this day and age. As has been said by many of my Sinn Féin colleagues and by many Deputies across this House, into the future if the need arises for further legislation to deal with any particular issues that arise from the pandemic - touch wood that will not happen - hopefully we, as Dáil, can deal with them in this House. The Government will find the Opposition willing and able in that regard.

Earlier, Deputy Ward made the point that this measure is possibly a blank cheque that might never be cashed by the Minister. I hope that is the case. On that basis, we do not need this to happen, but we are where we are. I hope that the Minister and other members of Government will take on board what has been said by the Opposition on this matter. We still need to continue the conversation as regards how we secure ourselves by securing the rest of the world and those wider conversations in regard to vaccines. Many have said that a trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights, TRIPS, waiver was not necessary or that it was not needed in respect of bulking up capacity and production. As much as I may have believed that at the time, I was not ideologically wedded to it. I am open to anything that is shown to be a solution. I never for a moment accepted that pharmaceutical companies would not try to make a profit in this particular set of circumstances. We, the European Commission and the international community need to maintain a conversation on this and to ensure that we have a roadmap and a plan. I accept that there are logistical difficulties in regard to parts of the developing world and ensuring that we have a proper vaccine roll-out. That is the only means by which we can ensure we get to the next stage. As we move forward, we will also need extra capacity in terms of booster shots where vaccines wear-off or we do not get the same bang for buck after a period. We would all agree that our focus needs to be on the most vulnerable. We need to make sure all of that goes as smoothly as possible.

I would think much has been learned in relation to how we have operated over the past while. We will not necessarily have the glitches and difficulties we had at the early stages. That is what needs to happen. However, this legislation is not the road map we need at this time. We must show people we are entering into changed circumstances. We want them to adhere to whatever guidelines must pertain at any particular time. If there is a need for something to be done, it could be done quite easily within this House on a cohesive, well-planned and thought-out sort of way, and I know the Government will not find an Opposition that is wanting. Go raibh maith agaibh go léir. The first bit I said can be struck from the record.

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