Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

To correct the record, when this pandemic commenced, we were all, as Opposition leaders, summoned to Government Buildings. The record will prove that was there was unanimity on all sides of this House - among independents and everybody else. We in the Rural Independent Group put our shoulders firmly to the wheel and accepted the public health advice. We did everything were asked to do. Of course we did. That was until we found out that there was an unaccountable body, NPHET, many other agencies and the previous Minister involved. Then the current Minister took over. The ironic thing is that he seems to have memory loss. He was with us at those meetings because he was an Opposition Deputy at the time. The record will show this. If the Minster does not want to correct the record, I cannot make him correct it and neither can the Ceann Comhairle. It is disingenuous of the Minister to suggest what he did. We went, we found out and we saw what was happening. Thankfully, it did not end up the way we thought. The fear of God was put into us - maybe with good reason at the time - but we saw how matters panned out as time passed. It is our duty as Opposition Deputies to hold Government account. That is our definite duty under the Constitution.

The Minister said that he signed 171 regulations. He did not sign 71, 21, 11 or 17, but 171. That is a frightful number of statutory instruments and regulations to which we have no access and no recourse to question, to deal with, to amend, to support or to do anything with. They are just signed by the Minister. He said he signed one this evening before he came in here. He may have indicated that he signed two - I am not sure. I asked the Taoiseach about pre-legislative scrutiny earlier and he made the most alarming statement. The head of the Government, the Minister’s leader, said that pre-legislative scrutiny would take too long and is too slow. That says it all.

We are here and we have tabled amendments. The Rural Independent Group tabled an amendment the purpose of which is to bring these measures to an end in February, but it will not be reached. The Minister is making a great play about all the time that he has given to the Bill. There is a three-hour debate on Committee and Remaining Stages. There were three hours of debate last week. The Minister never replied to any of the questions that I had put to him. Those questions were drafted, voluntarily, by legal people. They related to the draconian powers in respect of detention and everything else, and why the Minister wanted them. Some of the amendments before us this evening ask the Minister to lay before the House reports on the number of times those powers have been invoked. All that he told us was that he had those powers all the time.

Fair play is fine play with me. My voting record here will always show that because it is on the record of the House and no one can lie about it. Tens of thousands of people signed up for Ireland’s call. I do not know what to think. I put down several parliamentary questions to the Department and I could never a the figure as to how many people were taken on and how man were willing to come back here from all over the world in the spirit of meitheal. Ní neart go cur le chéile. They came to help out in a time of need. Everybody put their shoulder to the wheel. From those in the front-line services, to the people who were just able to walk, to people who were 100 years of age and more. Everybody did it.

On messaging, we have no members of the media - or very few - to question the Minister. We have a few journalists who stand out there. There is no media scrutiny. The Department and the HSE have paid vast amounts of money to media outlets. Through parliamentary questions I am trying to elicit information on the exact amounts that were paid and to which exact outlets. That is buying the media, as far as I am concerned, and buying silence. Some €3.884 billion extra was spent by the HSE and Department of Health in the period from March to December 2020. I have no idea yet what has been spent in 2021, but I am sure it surpasses the €3.884 billion that was spend in the nine months of the pandemic in 2020. Much of it was recklessly spent on buildings and procurement. There was no proper tender process, no accountability, no nothing. The Minister expects us to be silent, to support him and to give him a blank cheque, as Deputy Cullinane said.

There was a whole mess in respect of antigen testing and an abject refusal to entertain its use. Many of us are using antigen tests on a daily basis in order to monitor whether we might be infected. The Minister has draconian powers and he can detain people if his officials think that people are being reckless. He was going to pay for the antigen tests. When he was finally dragged, kicking and screaming, into the world of antigen tests 18 months after they became available, the Minister stated that he was going to pay for them, subsidise them and everything else. Then, hey presto, he decided that the market would dictate the position. The market is not much good to people who cannot afford antigen tests. There are many who cannot afford them. Those in big families cannot afford them. Whether they cost €4 each or €8 each, it does not make much difference. We cannot find out how much it costs for PCR tests. I am told that 1 million PCR tests were carried out in the past number of weeks. Who is paying that bill? What is the cost to the taxpayer?

See this speech in context