Niall Ó Donnghaile (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. Tréaslaím leis an méid a bhí le rá ag an Seanadóir Clifford-Lee agus Conway i dtaca le straitéis chumarsáide trí mheán na Gaeilge agus trí mheán Braille chomh maith.

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, and welcome her to the House for this very important debate and statements. I will make a few points at the start before I get to the substantive part of my remarks. I am sure it will be unsurprising to Senator Craughwell that I disagree with him on this. I do not quite understand the psychology, the politics or even the effectiveness of suggesting boots on the Border to deal with this. I do not believe that is helpful. I believe it is inflammatory and it causes worry and concern in an already uncertain time for people. We need to work to give practical effect to the memorandum of understanding that was agreed between both chief medical officers in what seems a lifetime ago. I do not say this to be political, glib, cliched or lazy about this. It is not political because it is science and we need to work on the basis that Ireland is one epidemiological unit. We all share this big lump of rock. That is the reality.

When I travelled down here before Christmas, as people crossed the Border towards the Carrickdale Hotel, they were was asked to divert off and there was a Garda checkpoint, which was no big deal. It was right and proper. This was replicated throughout this State and in the North. That is how we deal with this. We have spent years talking about the fact that no one wanted a return to a hard border and that the Border could not be policed. Nobody knows better than my colleagues from Border constituencies that it would be an absolute waste of time and resources, including An Garda Síochána and other resources, to put them on particular roads. I am aware this is not what Senator Martin had suggested in his remarks, but I do not believe it to be helpful, in the first instance for that very reason and because I do not believe there is any point in arguing for that.

We need not to operate in silos and our health departments need not to turn their faces away from each other. We need to be sure in our information and we need to co-ordinate cohesive all-Ireland communication strategies that speak to and reassure people, and which give fact to what are meant to be our shared plans for dealing with the emergency we face collectively, no matter where we are. This is where our focus should be if we talk about a North-South response to the pandemic and not reactionary reflex towards putting people on the Border.

I put it to the Minister of State that the people are facing into what is, potentially, the worst phase of the pandemic so far. Case numbers are in their thousands compared with a few months ago. The State now has the fastest growing crisis in the world and the Government still has not got testing and tracing right. Testing and tracing was not used effectively to hunt down the virus. There is still no enforcement of mandatory quarantine for people who come into the State. The all-Ireland response to fighting the virus is still not right.

I mention this bleak lead-in to this debate about the roll-out of the vaccine to ensure the Government approaches its inoculation plans with much more rigour and certitude than it has in its handling of the transmission of the virus. There was a huge sigh of relief across the State when the respective states began the vaccination programmes. People are keen to be vaccinated and keen to play their part in eliminating this virus and not just living with it. The Government needs to seize this moment of popular expectation and hope that has arrived with the vaccine. Yet, the early signs are not good that the Government and its numerous systems are match ready, to borrow a phrase, for the challenge and opportunity offered by the inoculation plan for the Government and the people.The Government must harness the resources that the State has and incorporate them into the vaccination plans. As it rolls out the plans it should work in conjunction with the Northern Ireland Executive's plans, as I have said, and both administrations must be joined at the hip, so to speak, to protect and vaccinate the people of this country, no matter where they happen to reside.

The more people are vaccinated, the safer hospitals become on wards and in intensive care units. The more people are vaccinated, the safer the rest of the population is as they await their jab. There is a caveat and just because a person has been vaccinated, it does not mean he or she cannot transmit it. When people get the vaccine, they should still be careful around those who do not have it.

It is crucial that the Government instils confidence in the public as it follows through its mass vaccination programme. That confidence will come from information that reflects the Government being on top of that plan. A lack of information from the Government in this most important of projects will create a vacuum, and into this vacuum will step misinformation and rumour, some of it deliberate, as colleagues have said.

I do not doubt for a minute that this is a massive undertaking, the biggest in the history of this State. What are the Government's key objectives and what is its pathway to achieving these objectives? Trained people are essential to the success of the programme and the Government has correctly set an ambitious target of 700,000 people to be vaccinated by the end of March. How did the Government arrive at that figure? Set against that figure is the information that the Minister has given us today about reductions and delays in the delivery of some of the vaccines, with some parties not able to meet their delivery commitments. If there is a shortfall in numbers or serum - and that seems to be the case - is the Government in a position to speedily ensure nobody will miss out on being vaccinated in a safe and timely manner? Does it have the personnel trained to achieve this target? Does it have the required dosage of serum to meet the March target and the information technology system in place to register and record vaccinations or to ultimately guide this unprecedented operation? Has it identified the mass vaccination centres yet and what about the staff and expertise needed to run these centres?

There is also a concern about the accuracy of the designation of people to be vaccinated from those most vulnerable to those most needed to protect the most vulnerable in residential care homes, in wards and intensive care units in hospitals and in childcare centres, pharmacies and GP surgeries. Is the Government satisfied the vaccination programme it is overseeing is capable of successfully covering all the various categories of people? Colleagues have told me that elected representatives are understandably being lobbied about the timeline of the vaccination programme, and when they write to the relevant Minister seeking answers and reassurance for constituents, there is an unacceptable delay in the response.

I appreciate and understand that this is a busy time but elected representatives, regardless of their level, need to be responded to. They need the information, as we have all said, to assist in having a proper communications strategy. People are genuinely worried that the speed of the Government's vaccination programme is too slow. It is fair to say there has been a collective effort from the Members of the Oireachtas to support the Government in its plans to deal with the consequences of the virus for people on many fronts. The Government must listen, respond and change its strategy when necessary. We want to see the virus extinguished and not just contained. The measures taken by the Government across the board, particularly in the roll-out of the vaccination plan, will be judged on whether we are moving towards extinction or containment.

There has been a reduction in Seanad sittings for understandable reasons so the Minister of State might indulge me while I have her. On the Order of Business we referred to the upsurge in domestic violence as people are isolating at home. There is a scheme that I want to flag where people in pharmacy outlets can quietly seek assistance by asking trained staff, who will in turn provide those people with the ability to contact the Garda. That initiative has been rolled out in pharmacies here in the South for some months and Boots in the North has recently announced an "Ask for ANI" initiative. If somebody asks a member of staff for this, that person will be brought to a private space where the police can be contacted. At this point we need to look at building on that initiative and encouraging more pharmacies and other trusted places to roll out similar programmes so that people can find engagement.I have written to the Minister for Justice, Deputy McEntee, and the Minister for Health, Deputy Donnelly, on the issue and I am not trying to catch the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, who is present, on the hop. Rather, I just wish to reaffirm that ask.