Duncan Smith (Dublin Fingal, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Even compared to this morning's debate, right now feels like a very sad time. The people that have been on to me this afternoon, particularly in the past hour and a half, are angry but also disconsolate and sad about where we are going with this virus. They have known for a number of weeks that we have been heading towards restrictions. The figures have been too high in respect of case numbers and, particularly, hospitalisations and ICU admissions. While the mortality rate has gone done and the vaccines have played a significant role in that, between four and six people per day are still dying from this virus.

Many of us saw this day coming in terms of restrictions being announced. The frustration is that we in opposition have asked for changes over recent weeks, including long-term measures. As I have said, we cannot operate as if this wave will be the last. We hope it will but we have to plan that it is not. That is why we needed a strategy on antigen testing that worked.

The Taoiseach in response to me said he saw a role for regular antigen testing in households as a key measure in 2022 to suppress the virus. A couple of days later, the Minister said the Government would not subsidise antigen testing but let the market do it. Deputy Ward indicated succinctly the cost of those tests. They are not affordable for people on low incomes or social welfare payments. Antigen tests only work if done serially or regularly in a pattern. That science has been clear from the start and that is why we needed them subsidised or free.

Today, I received a reply to a parliamentary question to the Minister on staffing in our vaccination centres. He said there are struggles there and the people we had in the summer when the vaccine roll-out was firing on all cylinders have gone back to work in primary care, college, back into retirement or are in our PCR testing or swabbing centres. We are in bad shape. It is clear from his response today that we do not have enough people working on our booster programme. That is the emergency measure and power we need: a booster programme that is firing on all cylinders and getting people into pharmacies, GP surgeries, vaccination centres and pop-up vaccination centres.

I am deeply concerned. It was confirmed to me earlier what we have been hearing for several weeks, namely, that there are staffing issues in the booster programme. I ask that every effort be made. I know it is not easy. There is not a large number of skilled vaccinators out there but our backs are to the wall with this virus. We need to pull out every stop we can, even if it requires short-term training. Whatever it requires, we need to get vaccinators into all those centres and environments and get people jabbed as soon as possible.

With the restrictions recommended by NPHET today, my heart again goes out to the arts community, those working in hospitality and taxi drivers. Many taxi drivers recently came off support payments. December gets them through January and February and the rug has been taken out from under them. We have space in next week's schedule. I do not mind sitting next Friday if it means we are bringing back emergency legislation for support measures such as the pandemic unemployment payment, PUP, for these workers who will be out of work. The fact these supports have been wound down while we reintroduce restrictions will mean people will lose their jobs and incomes is what angers me the most. We need to protect these vulnerable workers who, even at the best of times, can have irregular work. Now they are in the worst of times and have very few supports. They face a December that is even darker than last December, if that is even possible.

I ask the Minister, if we are extending the powers to 22 January, to at least have a weekly briefing in that period for spokespersons from NPHET please. We need it. As Deputy Cullinane stated, we are asked to go on media. To the people in our communities, we may as well be in government. We are Deputies and we have to have answers. We are giving advice and responses based on media reports and corridor rumours. It is not good enough on an issue like this. We need to know and to have briefings. Can we have regular briefings while we go into the teeth of this dark period?

In the Minister's opening statement, he said: "With the virus spreading at such high levels in the community and the recent emergence of the Omicron variant, we can unfortunately expect further hospitalisations and possible deaths in the coming weeks and months." Will he speak to that? Is that because the emerging data suggests the omicron variant is vaccine-resistant? Is there increased morbidity with this variant? What is the science? I know it is emerging science on a new variant, but what is the latest? I do not want to take our information from snapshots of news articles on Twitter and so on, but that is where people are. Something is shared that says omicron is very mild and something else that says omicron is really serious. The Minister has stated we expect further hospitalisations and deaths because of the emergence of the omicron variant. It would be most helpful if he would articulate the science behind that as best he can.

We need a long-term strategy to address the Covid-19 pandemic. We are back in a panic situation and being submerged into the depths of what will be a long December and January. We have plateaued at levels that are far too high. We have had a couple of weeks where discussions about the pressures on our ICU departments and hospitals were front and centre of the debates in this House and the media. We moved on to PCR, antigen and HEPA filters.

However, the pressure in our hospitals is worse now than it was last week or three weeks ago and it is only going to get worse. We need to imagine ourselves being inside those buildings and just how bad it is. We need to remind ourselves of the "Prime Time" documentaries, when the cameras were allowed in to show how bad it was, and how shocked we were. It is as bad now as it was then.

I do not know what the strategy might be for the unvaccinated but we have to speak about them and the damage they are doing to our health service. If there are people out there who are hesitant for medical or other reasons that we can understand and we can speak to them, we should do that. There are others who have staked a flag on the issue of vaccination as some kind of front line on freedoms, such as were outside the back gate demonstrating today. They have gone as far as taking people out of hospitals, causing real damage. People are dying because of this. I have said that previously. This is an issue on which I am not asking for an answer because I do think there is an answer. We have to be strong in condemning in the strongest terms that reckless messaging and activity that is killing people. We know from the figures that the majority of people in ICU are unvaccinated. Whether those people are active in that regard, they can be influenced by it. The power of social media messaging is so complex now it is reaching into every corner of our State. If people are vulnerable on the issue of vaccination and they have concerns about it, this is a very powerful and potent message and a dangerous one that is killing people. It is making people very sick and it is crippling our hospital services. We cannot have this debate without mentioning that.

People say that the Government has lost the dressing room. I think we are there now. People are fed up, angry and sad. They do not see an end to this pandemic. What they do see are certain tools that they want to see the Government supporting. They want Government to ensure that there are not two-day delays in PCR testing, that they have access to antigen testing and that there is good air quality in their schools. HEPA filters will play a role in that, but they are not a silver bullet. There is no silver bullet. The public want clarity on policies on this and investment in these areas. The public are pragmatic. They do not want to see people die or to see our hospitals under such pressure. As difficult as they are, the public can understand restrictions. They would probably swallow them if they believed that the right decisions were being made in long-term planning for improving our health service and resourcing our doctors, nurses, healthcare assistants and hospital staff and for pandemic-proofing our health system and ensuring the roll-out of the booster jab is operating as best it can, but they are angry because they do not see these things happening. They fear there is another dark winter ahead and there is no hope coming from within this building from the Government. That is a problem.

The financial supports have to be revisited. These restrictions are not going to be a circuit breaker. Whether they will work is an unknown, but they will not be a circuit breaker. This is going to be slow down and slow out, which means people are going to be out of work and not earning a living for a long time. Twenty-one months into this pandemic, that is unacceptable.

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