Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for his question. I acknowledge what he has said and agree with it. We owe an awful lot to the front-line healthcare staff for their management of the pandemic. The most important thing people can do now to help our acute services and those who work in them is to get vaccinated if they have not done so. I urge people, without judgment, to consider getting vaccinated. The good news is that up to 1,500 people are now turning up daily for their first vaccination, which shows the campaigns are beginning to penetrate and people are beginning to respond. That is important. There is evidence that some people have missed their dates for the booster vaccination. I urge people who are eligible for the booster and get a date for its administration to get it in a timely manner.

There have been discussions on the recognition of healthcare workers at the Labour Employer Economic Forum, which involves trade unions, including the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, and IBEC. We are considering the best and most effective way we can recognise workers and their contribution during the pandemic, specifically front-line healthcare workers who have been on the front line and have faced the gravity and the real impact of the coronavirus on people in hospital wards and intensive care units. It has meant enormous trauma for many people working on the front line. I would like to bring that consideration to a conclusion as soon as possible. Some more consideration is being given at Government level in respect of the measures we will take. We accept there is a need to recognise the contribution that has been made.

We received a presentation from the HSE yesterday evening. The Deputy is correct in his analysis about the peak of this wave of the pandemic. The original model suggested infection would peak in the third or fourth week of November. The suggestion now is that the peak will be later, in December. There is uncertainty around all of these predictions and modelling, as there must be. It will never be exactly precise. The impact is being felt by healthcare workers right now. We must do everything we possibly can to alleviate that pressure between now and the end of the year. The measures we have decided to take today will help in that regard but, collectively, we must reduce our socialisation and the amount of time we congregate. We must take up the vaccination when we are offered it. All of that will help to reduce the pressures on our hospital system. The presentation we received from the HSE yesterday evening was quite grim in respect of the challenges ahead and the pressures on the hospital system right now because unlike the first and second wave of the pandemic when we closed everything down, we have not done that on this occasion. There will be pressure to focus on the Covid-19 patients as the various scenarios that have been modelled play out.

See this speech in context