Seanad debates

Monday, 31 May 2021

Covid-19 Vaccination Programme: Statements

 

10:30 am

Photo of John McGahonJohn McGahon (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will follow up on the calls to consider having people in their 20s vaccinated sooner. While it is highly unlikely to happen, I am concerned about the authoritarian nature of some of the comments that have come out over the past 48 hours regarding the scenes in Dublin. Young people have put their lives on hold for the past 15 months. We owe them a huge debt of gratitude. I am sick of the sanctimony and of the moralising towards young people. Young people are outside because they have basically been locked up for 15 months. They are now being told that they are not allowed walk up streets. We have been closing more and more public spaces to try to push them further away. We should open up more public spaces to give them more opportunities to socialise outside after the 15 months they have had.

We are the lucky ones. The best years of our lives are past us. I ask Members to imagine being between 17 and 22 years of age and being locked up inside for the past 15 months.Now, gardaí are coming along, taking their cans from them and emptying them. People are saying they are not allowed to walk on the streets, and Dublin City Council is trying to shut down every public space they have. That is wrong. I have been full steam behind all the measures we have introduced over the past year and a half because it was the right thing to do, but it is not now. All the vulnerable are vaccinated and we are flying through the vaccination process, yet some people in our society cannot stop the sanctimonious moralising towards young people, who have made the biggest sacrifice. We should be doing more to facilitate socialising for them outdoors. If we could consider that, I would appreciate it.

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