Regina Doherty (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for coming in this afternoon and giving of his time to not only update us and listen to what I hope will be constructive suggestions that genuinely will taken on board. There is no doubt - I certainly hope - that the world is living through a once-in-a-generation crisis. From when that crisis started to become a daily occurrence for all of us last March, we moved very quickly, both in Ireland and in every country, to absolutely protect our vulnerable citizens, front-line workers and the elderly based on the projected models given to us. We moved very swiftly to protect our healthcare delivery system to make sure that we had extra reserves and resources, should those modelling numbers come through. I was privileged to be part of some of the decisions at the outset of the crisis. I vividly remember one interview panel that I sat on with Professor McConkey, who has become a household name, where he projected that by the end of this year, we would have 50,000 Irish people dead. The talk at the time was as stark as it could have been. The response on behalf of the HSE, the Department of Health and the Government was as responsive as it needed to be.

Since March, we have lost over 2,000 Irish citizens. As Senator Boyhan has said, every single one of those lives lost is an absolute tragedy, a massive loss to their family members and to the societies they came from and contributed to, which should never be diminished. What is a very little known conversation is that over 50% of the people who died did so in nursing home settings.We moved so quickly to protect the people in our nursing homes, yet more than 50% of those who lost their lives this year due to Covid-19 were, sadly, residents in nursing homes. I have to ask whether we have moved effectively enough, knowing what we thought we knew. We learned more week by week about the virus, how it travels and what it does. Have we moved effectively enough given that we are now, thankfully, coming out of a second wave? I want to pose a question. Have serious negotiations continued following what started between Nursing Homes Ireland, on behalf of the nursing homes of this country, and the Department of Health? Have they been maintained since March?

I will speak about the health effects or ill-effects of Covid-19 on the delivery of healthcare and on lockdown as a strategy. I beg the Government to ensure lockdown does not continue to be part of considerations in future. We locked down originally because we were in a major crisis. It was to buy time in March, April and May, which we did. We did not learn during that time what protocols should have been put in place based on the new knowledge of the trajectory of the virus. We failed to spend the summer employing people to track and trace and the track and trace system collapsed only a couple of months ago.

This was felt overwhelmingly in my home town. I know there are certain reasons people might point the finger and ask why we had such an outbreak in my town. Some of the people who tested negative are still waiting on telephone calls from the track and tracing people. We were promised the recruitment of 70 or 80 people to the tracking and tracing system weeks ago. That still has not materialised.

When we go back to protecting our elderly and healthcare systems the most fundamental tools we have are tracking the virus, tracing where it comes from, locking it down and quarantining people. These things still do not seem to be happening. I am frustrated with all the other tools we are employing which involve closing down society.

Senator Boyhan talked about people being lonely. We still have not had a conversation about the loneliness that lockdown is causing, which is having an overwhelming impact. We see the pitting of sections of society against each other. One activity is deemed good and absolutely needed while another must be sacrificed, and to hell with the consequences. We need to have a proper conversation about the strategy. It is not good enough to say we are all delighted because we have four or five vaccines on the way and if we batten down the hatches, we will all be grand. Another six months of loneliness is an absolute lifetime for some people.

Senator Boyhan spoke of a man he met or spoke to during the week on the telephone. I had an email from a man who lost his mother during the summer. While he is devastated at the loss, it was not due to Covid-19. He is absolutely sure it was due to loneliness because she had not one visitor from 6 March until she died. That is not living with Covid-19. That is not recognising that there are vulnerable people whom we need to protect. We need to ensure there are processes in place to mind these people from the virus. We need to find mechanisms to allow people to live and those who are less susceptible to carry on for society, the community and the economy. We need to be able to continue to live until the vaccines come. Please God they will be successful. I call on the Minister of State to give us an update on plans for tracking, tracing and quarantine. "Testing, testing, testing" is a mantra that we have heard for many months but it has not materialised.

I call on the Minister of State to reinstil confidence in the health service and the messaging by the Government because it seems to have either gone astray or got completely lost. It is not only that we not talking to the adults in the country any more. We heard some weeks ago that we were going to find some mechanism to talk to younger people. That seems to have been some sort of whim because it never materialised. We heard talk of finding influencers. We do not even have the HSE talking to young people, let alone trying to find influencers. We need to get our messaging back on track. We need to reinstil confidence so there is a strategy other than the idea that when the numbers go back up in January we will lock down again. We need to ensure we do not experience again the number of deaths in nursing homes that we have experienced to date.