Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

What will happen in our hospitals in January? On Tuesday Dr. Mike Ryan of the World Health Organization said that the sheer weight of numbers with the Omicron cases will put hospitals under pressure internationally. This morning Dr. Susan Hopkins, the UK Health Security Agency's chief medical advisor, told the House of Commons health committee that the R value of the Omicron variant could be as high as five, making it four times as transmissible as Delta. By today it will be the dominant strain in London. Public health experts have not ruled out 1 million cases per day by the end of the year for the UK.

Here in Ireland Omicron has increased from 1% of total cases at the start of last week to 27% of new cases now. The Tánaiste has indicated that it may be, and I think it will be, the dominant strain by next week or sooner. Even if Omicron proves to be a less severe strain than Delta, and I hope it does although that has not yet been proven, the sheer weight of numbers, as Mike Ryan put it, will most likely put unprecedented pressure on hospitals in the new year. Will there be more pressure on the hospitals than in January 2021? It is possible. The hospital system did not collapse under the strain last January, thanks largely to the efforts of our healthcare workforce, but it was a close run thing. The Minister of State cannot give a guarantee that our hospital system will stand the strain this time. No doubt the Minister of State will point to how 30% of private beds can be accessed under the deal. The deal was a 12-year deal. It was signed on 8 January last year. When will that deal be extended? Does it run out on 8 January? In any case, the Minister of State cannot give a guarantee that 30% extra would be enough. There should be no risks taken. All the hospital capacity in the State should be available to the State. The Government should nationalise the private hospitals and put all their resources at the service of the public health effort. Public health must come before private profit.

Professor Christine Loscher was right. The schools should be closed tomorrow. They should not open next Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday. Primary schools are the No. 1 location for the spread of the virus. How many school goers might contract Covid over those three days next week? Is it hundreds? Is it thousands? They will be mixing with parents, grandparents and other generations over Christmas. It is not a case of keeping the nerve, as the Taoiseach says. It is a case of using common sense. Keeping the schools open next week is reckless. They should close tomorrow.

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