Annie Hoey (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Cathaoirleach. I thank the Minister for coming into the House to talk about this issue. We are all talking about the same things and thinking about how AstraZeneca is going to impact on us. It is important, as was outlined, that the Government needs to turn its attention to the plan it has for our own vaccination programme. I know that the existence of the vaccine has provided an enormous amount of comfort and certainty for many people. This is at a time when an awful lot of things have occurred outside of our control. Right now, the public needs certainty and reassurance that our national vaccination programme will continue at pace.

The Minister did outline a bit of news on AstraZeneca and how this is going to affect the national vaccination programme. Does he envisage any major delays in the roll-out? Are there contingency plans in place to acquire the vaccine from other sources, such as Pfizer-BioNTech, to make up for the lag in numbers? When people heard that news, a shock and a jolt was felt. People are looking to the Government for comfort and certainty, to know that there is a plan B and that things will not spiral completely out of control.

In opposition, we like to blame the Government for many things, but I do not think we will hold it responsible for something that has happened at a European level.What people want to see from the Government is how it will respond to what has happened at a European level with AstraZeneca and the potential reduction in the number of vaccines rolling out. That is within the Government's responsibility, as is the communication for same.

On the roll-out of the vaccine here at home, I want to raise concerns about the pace of the roll-out for some healthcare workers. I listened at the weekend to Phil Ní Sheaghdha of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisations, INMO, on RTÉ. She raised most concerning issues about nurses and healthcare assistants in some hospitals being told they would not be likely to receive vaccinations until mid-February. At the same time, they do not have access to enough PPE in some settings. I am sure I am not alone, even in this Chamber, in being concerned that healthcare providers on wards, who are bravely facing this virus every day, are still waiting for vaccination or indeed a date for vaccination. For goodness sake, we are still in January and mid-February seems quite a while away for people who are dealing with Covid patients in healthcare settings, especially given the high infection rate in hospital settings. The idea that it might take another three weeks for a nurse in a hospital setting to get a vaccine is unacceptable. Does the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, have any response to that? Will she explain why we could be halfway through February before a nurse might receive the first dose of the vaccine? Does this have anything to do with the potential shortages coming down the line? What contingency plans are being put in place for those nurses and front-line workers who have been told they will have a longer wait?

I was at a meeting last night with a group of women and we inevitably got around to discussing the virus and vaccines. It was interesting to hear that many of the women in the group, some of whom were more than 60 years of age, said they would rather stay cocooning at home for a while longer to ensure that front-line workers got the vaccine. I am not saying that is reflective of all people of that age group, but I thought it was interesting that they would not object to sitting tight for another couple of weeks, as their priority is for healthcare workers to be vaccinated. Perhaps they know healthcare workers or they see the value of their work. I thought it was interesting that they were so selfless that they wanted healthcare workers to be safe, well and vaccinated.

I am pleased the Minister of State spoke about an information campaign. Last night at the meeting, we talked a lot about communication and information. I think people know that there is no real rhyme or reason to this virus, that there are things that are simply out of the Government's control, my control and everyone else's control, but there is a need to believe the Minister of State and her colleagues have things in hand, insofar as that is possible. That belief will come from clear, honest communication and from people feeling they trust that there is leadership in steering us through what has been an extraordinary situation. None of us thought the pandemic would go on for this long and I do not think any of us thought we would see something like this in our lifetime.

We also need clear and honest information about the reality of the virus, actions that the Government is taking and the safety of the vaccines. I do not want to give the conspiracy people any airtime. They have more than enough it in my inbox, in my direct messages and online, but it is a challenge for all of us to go up against this misinformation campaign, which seems to be spreading. I have been surprised to hear people I know say they have been sent information by friends while playing Words with Friends - who knew it? - about this crazy thing that is happening. I was astonished that this information is being sent around to people who would have been lining up to get vaccines and talking about vaccinating their children for everything else except for this virus. It is interesting how the misinformation has got around. It is incumbent on the Government and all of us not only to challenge this misinformation but also to simply shut down some of the nonsense that is hurtling around the place and clogging up the inbox of everyone else in this Chamber as well.

I want to discuss the need to make sure that the arrival of the vaccine and its roll-out are bolstered and not countered by the public health advice of the day. The vaccine's arrival is not a silver bullet and for as long as we have a plan to roll it out, we must also still have a plan to manage community infection. No one wanted the surge in infection rates that we saw in December 2020, which has led us to facing two or even three more months of complete national lockdown.It could have been avoided had we all decided to keep the country under tighter restrictions in December.

I do not want to go too much into accusations on people coming into and going out of the country. At last week's meeting of the Joint Committee on Health, when discussing mandatory quarantines, Dr. Ronan Glynn said that no one thing is a panacea to dealing with this virus, but that does not mean we cannot take a combination of all sorts of things and hope that, with a strategic patchwork of actions, we can try to eradicate this virus insofar as possible. We cannot make the same mistake again. The big challenge is to learn from what has happened in recent months to try to steer us to the end point where it is hoped we will all have the vaccine.

We need a firm commitment from Government to do everything we can to reduce the spread of the virus through further and tougher restrictions, including the introduction of mandatory quarantine for those travelling into Ireland. I know that the subcommittee met yesterday and recommended that quarantine be introduced for anyone travelling without a negative PCR test. That does not take into account that someone could have contracted Covid following on from that result. I am somewhat sceptical about the negative PCR test for allowing somebody to travel.

The Labour Party calls for the introduction of mandatory quarantine and a ban on all non-essential travel into Ireland. It is never too late to begin introducing measures to reduce the spread of this virus and it is never too late to start saving lives. A number of measures could help on our way towards the full availability of the vaccine.