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

I disagree with the basic premise of the Deputy's argument. She speaks of a Government agenda. The only agenda I and the Government have is to protect people's lives and health in the middle of a global pandemic which is a one-in-100-year event. There is no other agenda than that. I do not know what the Deputy meant when she said it was just to suit the Government's agenda. Our motivation is to protect people and their lives. I will be honest with the Deputy.

That needs balance between competing interests and rights. There is always a challenge in public health in balancing those rights. In a public health crisis or pandemic, we have to give higher priority to public health advice. I have no issue with evaluating it through the prism of human rights but we are combating the spread of the virus. There is a range of bodies, agencies and statutory authorities in a modern democracy and government has to balance all of that but we are dealing with a pandemic that has killed millions around the world. We should not forget the severity and deadly nature of this disease.

We have had a voluntary vaccination programme. We have not had a mandatory or compulsory programme, nor should we have one. There is an obligation, people can have arguments and we have to provide the evidence. It is not spin. We are being told what is emerging from hospitals by hospital authorities. They give us the profile of those in ICU and in hospital, their vaccination status and so forth. I am not making that up. I have an obligation to put that before the public and the House.

I accept there are people who cannot be vaccinated because of adverse reactions or medical conditions. They should be provided for and I have asked that proper systems be developed where people with genuine medical issues or adverse reactions are facilitated in terms of participation in society. The vast majority of people have been compliant. That is why we have been effective as a country in dealing with this disease, relative to other countries in terms of death rates, illness and so forth. People have taken the messages on board. People adapted to the messaging three weeks ago. They saw the dangers rising in respect of Delta and the case numbers and changed behaviour.

There is nothing the Government would like better than to be back in a normal situation, dispense with the legislation that Deputy Mattie McGrath spoke about and get back to ordinary living because it is not the most popular thing in the world to be restricting people's personal liberties and freedoms.

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