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

Of course people should take up their vaccine boosters and of course there is no silver bullet for Covid-19, but I am shocked at the Taoiseach's complacency, inaction and, quite frankly, his denial of science when it comes to the issue of air quality and ventilation.

That is what it is. We now know that Covid-19 is an airborne disease. It hangs around in the air. In particular, it hangs around in buildings that are of poor quality and in which there are poor levels of ventilation or a lack of filtration of air to ensure air purity. The science is building up rapidly on this but the Government is doing nothing about it.

People Before Profit has been talking about this for months. Last week, we brought forward a Bill in which we are looking for the Government to establish minimum standards on ventilation and air quality. We did so on the basis of science and public health expertise. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has established that two HEPA filters in a room will reduce exposure to Covid-19 and other infectious diseases such as flu by 65%. In November, the University of Cambridge completed a study at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, where HEPA filters were put in for five days. The filters removed all traces of Covid-19 from the air. They then tested for five days in the same hospital without HEPA filters and Covid-19 returned. That is very strong evidence. Orla Hegarty demonstrated the startling fact that half of all those who have died in this country as a result of infection were infected in fewer than 400 buildings. That is less than 1% of buildings. I am talking about nursing homes, hospitals and industrial and workplace settings - meat factories and so on - in which there was poor-quality ventilation. The evidence is very strong. It is not a silver bullet, but it may be a significant game changer. Against that background, the Government is talking about using the minor works grant, which is probably just existing money instead of, as New Zealand has done, putting HEPA filters and air monitoring in every classroom. It should provide the money to purchase them up front and take the necessary action over Christmas. The Government should add to that hospitals, in respect of which the question of air quality is absolutely critical for the protection of the health workers who the Taoiseach was just praising. This is what the nurses and medical unions have been calling for for some time.

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