Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am reluctant to join in. I must say that I am a little bit surprised. With very notable exceptions, there has been very constructive debate from many Members on the Government side, but the swinging accusations in this House today have come from the Government benches, and it is not constructive. Let us be clear, there was a moment when we were doing very well in Ireland.A survey across Europe showed the reason we were doing very well was that we had the highest levels of compliance by individuals. Ireland was not doing great on testing or in our public health system readiness, but we had extremely high social compliance. That is why putting in place those measures, so that we show people have been pushed, and listening to people on those issues are really important. When we talk about this we should be clear that Ireland was very close to zero Covid. It was very close to a position where we would have at least kept our numbers very low but decisions were made specifically to emulate the Belgian model. That was the position advocated by the Tánaiste who talked about Belgium. We followed some of the measures in respect of Belgium and we saw the results.

When people pick out sentences that members of the Opposition uttered, we need to be clear that many of us have been advocating consistently for a more cautious, thoughtful approach for nine, ten or 11 months. Let us listen to each other and not try to reinvent history when it comes to the Government's position. I am glad its position is evolving but poor decisions and changes in policy just before December brought us to this position where it may seem that zero Covid is very difficult to achieve. However, that was not always the case.

The vaccine roll-out is very important and I share everyone's concerns about who is getting it. I am also concerned about the global roll-out of the vaccine.