Seanad debates

Thursday, 18 November 2021

Address to Seanad Éireann by An Taoiseach

 

10:30 am

Photo of Sharon KeoganSharon Keogan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

It is wonderful to have the Taoiseach in the Chamber. We would love to see more of him. He is very welcome here at any time. We would have liked if his appearance before us had occurred during happier times. With the reimposition of restrictions and the prospects of lockdowns not being ruled out in the run-up to Christmas, it certainly feels like Groundhog Day again.

The vaccinations have note been the medical or political panaceas it was hoped they would be. The Cabinet's elementary plan of lockdown and wait for the vaccine is no longer viable. In desperation, we have finally turned to using antigen testing, a useful tool in the anti-Covid kit of every other European country for the past year but which was seen as "snake oil" in Ireland for months as per the judgment of unelected medical advisers. It is too little too late, as the Taoiseach knows, as we languish at the bottom of the EU table for the worst rates of Covid-19 infection. The country still awaits a feasible exit strategy from this pandemic.

The systematic failures at organisational level in our bloated healthcare system - the most expensive out of the EU 15 on the basis of national income - which struggles every winter, have resulted in the inability to handle even the most modest increase in demand for capacity. The ordinary people of Ireland, who have complied to a fault over the past two years, will once again have to alter their ways of life to make up for this failure.

I am sure I am not alone in wishing that less time was spent in the Lower House in politicking against the Opposition, Sinn Féin. Sinn Féin will one day lead this country in government. It is as much the Taoiseach's personal responsibility to prevent that as it is mine. Sinn Féin will do its best biting at the Taoiseach's heels, and it is up to him to do his best in running the country. Rather than settle for refuting his opponents, why does the Taoiseach not show this country what Fianna Fáil can be? What happened to the Soldiers of Destiny? Perhaps some think that a grey, bland, globalist and EU-centric party accurately reflects the America-lite Ireland of today. I for one miss the deep and bold green of Irish republicanism, and there is much in store for a party that can deliver it.

As others have been parochial today, I, too, would like to be parochial. If there is any way the Taoiseach can pull a secondary school out of that bag, as well as the many other things people have asked, I would welcome it.

I wish the Taoiseach all the luck for the remainder of his tenure. I have no doubt he will lead Fianna Fáil into the next general election.

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