Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

Mandatory quarantining cannot stop Omicron, yet that is the only reason mandatory quarantining is being considered. What is the point? What is the endgame of putting a large amount of resources and money into putting a draconian measure into place? Although we did not agree with the Minister's version of mandatory quarantining, we called for mandatory quarantining when the population was not vaccinated and it was believed that vaccination could produce the possibility of the disease's elimination. We believed it was preferable to try to eliminate the disease in Ireland until a vaccine arrived. There was an objective - keep the disease out until we got the vaccine and it was possible to reopen. We now know that, even with more than 90% of the population vaccinated, we cannot eliminate the disease and we cannot stop the variants, so there is no point in this measure.

It is telling that the WHO has from the word "Go" on Omicron said that there should be no knee-jerk travel restrictions and that there should be tests. We have started to test. That is the sort of thing we need to do - identify the cases, isolate them, trace, have the hospital capacity to deal with the cases and start taking the sort of measures that can limit the transmission in buildings, as we discussed on the ventilation Bill, and so on.

This measure is pointless, so I do not understand why the Minister would pursue it at this stage. We will oppose the measure because it is pointless. If the Minister can set out a reason or objective, then I will be all ears, but I do not see any purpose to this. On that basis, we oppose the measure.

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