Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this Bill. Everybody tells the Minister stories about what is not right in terms of what we are doing. What has happened in the past two years has never happened before. It is unprecedented. The Government makes decisions, and the House supports it on the basis we are doing the right thing on the day. There are a few things we need to look at. All rules have gone out the door. We have had the implementation of rules, regulations and restrictions that are unprecedented. Two years ago, if we conducted a general election campaign on the implementation of these policies, we would have been told we were entirely off the wall to consider introducing all these restrictions. Some people are concerned we are taking more power than we should be taking. The reality is the vaccine has power. It has no other agenda, and it has no conscience, so we must work accordingly.

I compliment everybody on what has been achieved in the past two years for the safety of the population. The vaccination roll-out is something we can all be proud of. I encourage those who still have not got the vaccine to go for it. The booster programme is up and running also and it is going well. When people get vaccinated or get a booster, they feel that bit safer and more secure and they have a bit more confidence. That is what we need to give.

Deputy Creed referred to an issue in his constituency. Such issues arise in every constituency. Some in society are feeling the brunt of this situation who do not have a voice. I refer to people with disabilities and those in school with special needs. It has been horrible for them, their parents, and families over the past two years. We must make a special effort to seek out those people and make sure they are not left to survive on their own.

It is like going back in time to hear about a person who has to lock the door on his daughter so he can go out and do his farming. That should not be the case. We must do something about this kind of thing. When I say "we" I mean we must act collectively. It is important that where we come across such situations, we should try to deal with them through existing services.

In my constituency, a day service in Loughrea that was catering for approximately 30 people has not reopened since the arrival of Covid. The service was located in the St. Brendan's home and it has now been incorporated into the nursing home. It is proving difficult to create a space that will be safe. I know the Minister is aware of it. We could perhaps make an extra push to ensure a service is provided. It is 30 people a day, five days a week and there are 165 people in a catchment area from Athenry and around Loughrea and Gort. They miss this service, which acts as a lifeline for them. We must look at the way we do things for what I call the forgotten people. It is not that they are forgotten, but we appreciate that Ministers cannot think of everything.

It is important we use all the tools available to us. I know there has been a struggle with trying to get antigen testing over the line and to get the experts to provide coherent messaging on that. What was even more disturbing this morning was the debate on national radio about whether there should be filters in schools.

We have one set of people from NPHET making their suggestions and giving their advice and there is then another expert committee giving its advice and both are contradictory. This is being debated where there is an argument as to who is the best person to deliver the advice to the Minister. The Minister is in a hard place when this is what is coming at him. No more than many other things, the message we are giving out has to be very clear and the kites are being flown at times to see how people will react.

The same has happened on the schools and the masks for children from third class upwards in that there has been a mixed message and confusion as to how this will be done. Is it mandatory and up to the parents or the teachers and the school principal to decide? What responsibilities do the schools have if people do not put on or refuse to put on their mask and how do we deal with that? A very significant burden is being placed on our schools and school principals and we need to give them more guidance immediately so that they can implement as best they can the restrictions and the measures that we need to put in place. I am receiving calls from distressed parents or a teacher asking how they should deal with this or that. It is important therefore to have clear messaging and guidance.

Returning to the situation where people have gone abroad, how do we deal with where they are trying to get back? Last Saturday evening, all of a sudden all hell broke loose and now we have a situation where we have to bring in this legislation. How are we going to ensure that we can deal with the exception and with people in order to have the flexibilities? Where will this professionally-taken antigen test take place, how will it be made accessible and where is the information on this?

With the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, here, I wish to commend the nursing homes around the country for the great work they have done. In particular, now that they are in the position of having another exposure and risk, it is important that we continue to support them at the HSE level to ensure that nursing homes are safe. Back at the start of this pandemic, the exposure of nursing homes was perhaps not treated seriously and that is something that we should learn from. We now need to refocus on nursing homes and give them the supports they require, especially as we come up to Christmas where there is a greater demand for visitors to come into these homes. How will they deal with and manage that demand to ensure that the people in these nursing homes are kept safe?

It is important to also say that special needs schools need to be kept open right through this situation. When I say “need to be”, we have heard stories on this. As a member of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Disability Matters, we have seen and heard first-hand from witnesses the trauma that families have been through in the first lockdown. Again, these families were left in abeyance because we did not know how to deal with it. We have had that experience and we need to ensure now that the special needs schools are kept open and functional so that these families of special needs children have the comfort of knowing that the schools will remain open. A statement needs to be made on that as a matter of urgency.

The other area that I have a concern about is the economic well-being of our hospitality sector, our live music industry and all that goes with that. Right now, there is not a lockdown on pubs or restaurants but there is by stealth, because people are being advised not to go to restaurants or pubs. The proprietors and owners of these premises are facing constant phone calls cancelling bookings which is causing this closing by stealth. They need to be supported in a way that they will survive this Christmas that they were all looking forward to in order to make up some of the ground they have lost. Recognising the supports that have been there for business and for everybody over the past two years, it is important that we do not walk away from them right now. There are many small family pubs and restaurants which are on the brink and we need to publicly state that we will support them and give them that support until we get over this hump and hopefully into the new year where we will see a new dawn.

Finally, it is important to repeat that we have fantastic people working in our health service. They have been under severe pressure for so long and are constantly under pressure. People talked about the loss and challenge of trying to get staff to manage disability services and to do all of the things that we need to do in society to protect our people. Our health workers have done Trojan work and are heroes to us.

The general public in this country have also contributed so much to try to save and create a healthy environment that we can all live in. We need to keep reassuring people, recognise the effort that everybody is making and to encourage them to do more. This House has been unified in its approach to things. We may argue about how we do things and hindsight, I inform the Minister, is a great thing but on the day-to-day issues we are doing very well in dealing with the crises as they arrive and come at us in a wave. There are many heroes in this country at this stage. We need to continue to encourage people to do the right thing and to ensure that we have a clear and concise message at all times. We need one voice and not many experts expounding the virtues of what they think on the public airwaves and creating confusion. I believe that that and I thank the Cathaoirleach Gníomhach.

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