Seanad debates

Friday, 26 March 2021

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business

 

10:30 am

Photo of Mary FitzpatrickMary Fitzpatrick (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Absolutely, I did not mention it.

On a more positive note, normally I would be standing in Cabra collecting money for the Irish Cancer Society. I am delighted to be here. I wish I was standing on the streets like thousands of other people who give of their time voluntarily for the society and cancer research. This has been a hard year for all of us, and particularly hard for cancer sufferers and their carers, be they family members or professional carers. Cancer research is incredibly important. As a House, let us encourage everyone to support Daffodil Day today and cancer research.

We are all looking for a little hope. On a more positive note, the meetings that have been taking place and an indication that the target is to have 80% of the population vaccinated by the end of June give us all hope. We all want to cling to that hope but we also want to find a path to get us beyond where we are today. When the Cabinet sub-committee and the full Cabinet meet next week to decide, there will have to consider many just causes. Young people, in particular, have found this very difficult. Many of them are finding it hard to understand how they can be expected to sit in a classroom for eight hours with a mask but not allowed to engage in organised sporting activities outdoors. When organised outdoor sporting activities were taking place, more than 250,000 Covid compliance forms were being submitted every week. There is the construction industry as well. The housing crisis has not gone away and it is impacting our Covid numbers as well. The construction sector has proven itself to be safe and I ask the Leader to ask the Cabinet sub-committee to consider reopening it.

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