Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The efforts Irish people have made in recent weeks to reduce social contacts and take care when they meet others, combined with the high uptake of the vaccination and booster programme, have made a considerable difference to the public health situation. I know this is the reason restrictions have been eased. We have heard from the Chief Medical Officer, CMO, that getting back to activity is possible now and we have much to look forward to.

However, I have concerns, one of which is the case numbers and that people are still getting sick. My understanding is that children are still getting sick. We very much need ongoing close monitoring of the virus. The message has to be that the pandemic is still not over. There is a sense that people who are highly vaccinated or have already contracted the virus have changed their attitudes about the virus. I have heard many people talk about that in the past few weeks. We still have to be very careful because there is always a risk. While Omicron infections led to a smaller share of hospitalisation than infections with the Delta variant, China, which is hosting the Winter Olympics, is taking measures to contain travellers from abroad and avoid mixing with the population of Beijing.

We have reopened, which is great for our economy, tourism and hospitality, but we must accept that we still have a protective role. While we must communicate that people should continue to follow the current advice for those with symptoms and are close contacts and continue to wear masks and maintain clean hands, we cannot lay everything on the good people of Ireland who have already done so much. We must take steps to continue to protect public health. We must maximise the uptake of the primary and booster vaccinations and those travelling to Ireland continue to follow guidance. We must also boost our public health sector to catch any outbreaks that may occur.

As we reopen, we need to look at the pinch points. As I raised with An Taoiseach yesterday, my understanding is that most dentists do not accept medical card patients for treatment. Many people have been unable to afford to pay privately and their dental health has suffered immensely. Only one dentist in Carlow is taking medical cards right now. That has been a very big issue for me.

I have also had people contact me about GPs. In fairness to GPs, they have been giving vaccinations and boosters but some of them have not been seeing patients. Some patients have contacted me to say they very much want to be able to see their doctor face to face when they have medical complaints. Doctors, GPs and nurses have been very good about telephoning patients and some doctors are seeing patients but there are still some who are not. I ask that this be looked at.

I have also had many people contact me who are waiting on operations and feel they need to get in to the hospitals to have their operations. One lady who contacted me needed a knee replacement. She is an elderly lady with a medical card and had been waiting. We understand we had to be careful during Covid about people visiting hospitals or going in for operations. She was told it would be a long time before she had her operation. She ended up going private and her family had to save the money to get the operation for her. We should deal with the issue of people needing operations, especially those who are experiencing significant pain. While it is good that we have moved on, we have to ensure people who need operations or to see their dentists or GPs are in a position to do so and will be seen.

Another lady who appealed to me is immunocompromised and she feels the immunocompromised have been left very much to fend for themselves and that no information is passed to the population as a whole which might make people think twice about what they can do and about the concerns of the immunocompromised. I ask the Ministers of State to look at that. It is a good day in that we are moving on and returning to normality.

See this speech in context