Marie Sherlock (Labour) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire. I am certainly one of the people who is very worried about the current infection numbers, where they will go and the possibility that restrictions in some other form will need to be reimposed. That is shared by many in the community. Alongside that worry is the sense that for workers, young people, those living on their own and families, we must now start to learn to live with Covid-19.

Looking at this Bill, there are three very clear reasons I and my party are very deeply concerned about the legislation. We cannot stand by the discrimination that is such a key part of this Bill. Not only are young people being excluded but it also affects people who for whatever reason cannot take the vaccination. That might include pregnant women before the 14th week of pregnancy or those with other health conditions.

On the design of the legislation, we all know that no legislation is worth the paper on which it is written unless it can be enforced. It has been said by others and the Minister has heard it all week. Do we really expect that cafés, restaurants and bars will have the staff to police this system? Any of us who have been to a café, bar or restaurant know we wait for a service and they are typically just about staffed for the current requirements, so expecting them to have additional staff to try to police this system does not seem realistic. The question must be asked of why we are putting a system in place that is potentially designed to fail, which will lead to widespread non-compliance and an even worse position than we currently see with infection rates.

This brings me to the heart of my biggest concern with this legislation. The Government has failed on a number of counts to proactively implement provisions so we can start living with Covid-19. We have known for many months now that the vaccine is clearly the most crucial plank of our response to the pandemic. It is like driving a car where the vaccine is the engine but we will not get too far with just the engine and we need many other moving parts. There is an absolute need to put the other complementary parts in place, including antigen testing.

The Minister has heard plenty of Deputies and Senators talking about the need to get over the disgraceful dithering on antigen testing and put in place a system for it. It is about making sure there is education about how to use an antigen test and what is or is not possible with the use of antigen testing, including what to expect with its level of sensitivity. In England, even when a person is vaccinated, they are given an antigen test going out the door. In Austria, every household has been allocated five antigen tests. We have also seen what happens in Denmark, with the widespread use of antigen testing.

What have we done about ventilation? There have been comments today about people standing with workers and I hope the Government will accept our amendments on ventilation standards, which must be put in place.

At the heart of this is the question of what we are doing to protect workers in this sector. I have heard much rhetoric that these measures are in place to protect young workers but hotels have been open since 2 June and young workers have been in those hotels serving unvaccinated people like me and many others in this Chamber. I know from speaking with others that many people have made a trip to a hotel. We are told the reason we wear masks is not to protect ourselves but to protect others from us. We must put in place all those other complimentary measures to the vaccine programme to ensure we can begin to live with Covid-19.

The young workers in these sectors desperately want to go back to work. This may be their full-time job or they may be students who must earn a crust in order to provide for the college year. We know their pay level is the minimum rate or barely above it. Their average earnings in this sector are 45% of earnings across the sector as a whole. It is indicative of where these workers live and their capacity to be resilient against infection if they must isolate, for example. We have a number of amendments and I hope the Government will support them.