Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

Two years ago, we were in the throes of a general election. We were all going around knocking on doors trying to get back into the Dáil and some of us did while others did not. Little did we know what was to come four or five weeks later. It really does feel like a lifetime ago; not only the general election but what has gone on in the last two years across the world. It has been a truly unprecedented event, not only in our lifetime but across generations.

Many of us never heard of Covid-19 but we got to know it very well in every pore of our society. Many of us thought it was something from far away; a pandemic from a hundred years ago. Little did we know what was to come. The events that happened were completely unprecedented. When we think back now about what was to happen with regard to our liberty, the economic effect it would have on people's jobs, our health, the 10,000 people who died on this island and 6 million and counting who died worldwide, it really is unbelievable. A virus that was invisible to us has asked a lot of us and what we want to do next as a society. In the throes of the pandemic, however, the virus did a number of - I hate to say this - positive things.

One of the things that happened was the commandeering of private healthcare. There was no such thing as the two-tier health system for a period of time. Most of the 19 private hospitals were commandeered by the State. It throws a big question into why we need a one-tier health system. We saw the potential for better public service. We saw the fault lines that exist in society but more importantly, on a human level, we saw something unbelievable in ourselves about how humanity can be so good when it comes together; not acting as individuals but as a collective. We can be amazing. We can beat any virus in the world.

In our health service, doctors, nurses, porters or whoever it may have been had to go into an environment that was like trench warfare. They had to go into the midst of the pandemic, where Covid-19 was ever-present, and hold the hands of some of our relatives at their very last moments when they had nobody to say goodbye to except those hospital staff. We owed everything to those people and we continue to do so. Hopefully, we see a different society where workers are treated better. Most workers who worked through this pandemic are poorly paid and sometimes not recognised. They are looked down on and their jobs are seen as menial. They drove and served us and did everything they possibly could under extreme circumstances. We pulled together, however. I do not want to be party political about it; sometimes we have to rise above party politics. There were times the Government got it wrong and let some bad things happen. It got some things right as well. However, I think we are coming to a conclusion, hopefully, in relation to the pandemic.

My final issue is with regard to a public inquiry into nursing homes. It is really important that this State has a public inquiry regarding all the deaths in nursing homes in the first year and a half of the pandemic. We owe it to the people who died in those circumstances and the relatives who are still asking questions. It is incumbent on the State to have a public inquiry with regard to all deaths in nursing homes.

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