Regina Doherty (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

A number of colleagues have asked, either directly or indirectly, for a debate on Covid-19 and our management of same. A number of Ministers could potentially come to the House to answer questions on financial supports and restrictions, whether they be for our good health or otherwise but a separate debate is also needed on the ill-effects of Covid on the delivery of what we would consider normal health services in the country. I would rather not conflate the two issues because they are very different. It is easy for us to say that there are 95 people on hospital trolleys in Limerick because of Covid but I do not think that is necessarily true, although it is certainly a contributory factor. Senator Carrigy talked about the lack of GPs and I know that they are under incredible pressure. However, we have had dwindling numbers of GPs for a lot longer than we have had Covid. I will try to organise two separate debates, notwithstanding the time constraints for all Ministers between now and Christmas.

Senator Dolan spoke about farmers. We have all been meeting farmers over recent weeks, not least because of the announcements from the European Union and the Government's reactions to same. The climate action plan seems to be weighing very heavily on that particular sector and in that context, I really welcome what Senator Dolan said. Farmers are the custodians of our land. If anybody cares about our soil, the management of our land, our heritage and the food we produce, it is farmers. They get up in the middle of the night, when the rest of us are in bed, to make sure they look after their land and their animals. I welcome what Senator Dolan said in that regard.

Obviously, congratulations are due to Mountbellew on their victory at the weekend. It is a lovely time of the year because lots of communities get great joy but there is also the downside that lots of communities do not get any joy and come home having lost at the weekend. Fingallians won the Dublin intermediate hurling championship at the weekend which was great but my own home town lost in the semi-final the previous weekend. We have to take the good with the bad.

Senator Lombard asked for the booster campaign to be a little more clear. First, we are late to the party, having waited for NIAC in the last couple of months, in terms of talking about a booster campaign and I do not know why. It is as if we are now surprised by the numbers but NPHET gave us four modelling scenarios at the end of August. We all railed against them and said that we did not want to be between optimistic and pessimistic but we find ourselves right down now with the pessimistic numbers. The numbers certainly cannot be seen as a surprise but I really wish that NIAC had shown a little more urgency in the last couple of weeks. What we need to do now is roll out the booster campaign. The Tánaiste is many miles away today but he suggested this morning that we should stop calling it a booster campaign and should refer to a three vaccine dose-----