Róisín Garvey (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire. Seachtain na Gaeilge atá ann mar sin tá mé chun an Ghaeilge a úsáid i dtús báire. Tá sé an-tábhachtach go bhfuil an t-ábhar seo á phlé againn. It is hard to do everything that everybody wants in every way. Some people want the whole country opened up and some people want it closed down. It is a difficult time that we are in and everybody thinks he or she is right.I appreciate the fact that we are taking our advice from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. Sometimes, one has to ask whether there are any experts left in the world or whether we are all the individual experts, based on our swiping through social media and wanting to come up with objections. We have to thread carefully because this is a serious pandemic in which people are dying and we need to do the right thing. We need to rely on bodies such as the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control to get advice, as well as on people like the Chief Medical Officer. To that end, I welcome the mandatory quarantine of travellers from the 20 countries. Of course, I note that the Minister for Transport and the Minister, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, have indicated that if the list of countries needs to be extended then they will do that. This is informed by public health advice and about case and variant numbers.

It is important to note that Ireland is the only country in the EU to bring in this mandatory quarantine. It also is important to remember that many people from these countries already live in Ireland and have been living here for years. Let us not forget that either lest one thinks, on meeting anybody from one of those countries, that he or she has it. I have heard that already, and even suggested on national media by some who are opposed. We have to be careful around this and how we word it.

We really need to take a step back and realise that the people in charge, such as National Public Health Emergency Team, NPHET, and the Government, are trying to do their best and want to solve this problem as much as, if not more than, everybody else in Ireland. It seems to be acceptable to presume that the Government is trying to not solve the problem and wants to mess with people's lives when the exact opposite is true. The Minister has a serious responsibility. It must have been very difficult for the Minister. My role as a Senator representing the Government is challenging at this time not to mention what it is like to be the Minister for Health in a pandemic. We need to show compassion and respect for people who are trying their best, and maybe are actual experts, not people who have many followers on social media because they have an alternative viewpoint. We have to be careful about that because people's lives are at risk.

I wanted to ask about one issue. There is a national vaccine roll-out through the GP service. People are told to wait until their GP calls them but I have 94-year-olds wondering how come they have not been vaccinated yet although their GP has been doing the vaccinations for the past few weeks. There may be something in the communication from the HSE to the grassroots level where people are sitting around all day every day waiting for that phone call to come about the vaccination.

I support this Bill. I wish the Minister the best of luck with his endeavours. We are all trying to do our best here to get to the end of this terrible time and we have to respect one another as we try to do our best.