Sharon Keogan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

There are a couple of issues I want to raise this morning. First, we all received an email with regard to the pay and conditions of secretarial assistants for Senators. Currently, they are earning €24,400 per year, which equates to €11.75 an hour. There was to be a meeting with the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform in 2019 and this meeting has not taken place.Will the acting Leader please organise a meeting about the pay of secretarial assistants? They help each of us in our work and it is important they get a living wage.

Several Members spoke yesterday about the continuous use of vaccine passports or extending their use and limiting the number of services the unvaccinated can access. If we follow the science on this, it is clear that having a Covid certificate does not stop a person carrying the virus, passing on the virus or getting the virus. New evidence this morning states that the efficacy of the second Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine only lasts 90 days. We can see what is happening throughout the world where millions of people are protesting on this very issue. People are being forced to take vaccinations against their will and those who refuse are locked out of society. We need to wake up. If people must show papers to move around and to access food, services or travel, that is not freedom or democracy. I caution those in this House to stop the persecution of the people who for many reasons, including medical reasons, cannot get the vaccination. Some people may have got their first vaccination and, due to complications, cannot get their second vaccination. Others simply do not want the vaccination at this early stage. The Lancet, one of the world's most prestigious medical journals, has published an article asserting that people who are not getting vaccinated are being bullied. The unvaccinated are being stigmatised and that is not justified.

Our nation, people and businesses are suffering at the hands of the mismanaged health service. The people of this nation must, once again, shoulder the cost. We certainly do not want Senators adding to the fear that drives division in our society.

I will move on to talk about cybercrime in Ireland. A Grant Thornton report stated there was a 50% increase in the level of cybercrime in 2020. Furthermore, it is estimated that cybercrime cost the economy €9.6 billion last year, an astronomical increase from the €630 million estimated by Grant Thornton in 2014. The cyberattack on the HSE, combined with pressures caused by Covid-19, left the healthcare system in anarchy, with an 80% drop in the number of appointments in the days after the attack. Staff struggled to cope. The effects have been felt in the months since. The increases in spam emails, texts and calls to millions of our citizens since the attack must surely be a concern for us all. I have questions about the HSE. Has any assessment been carried out on the damage this has caused? Has there been analysis of what types of data have been leaked, and the level of that leak? Will those findings be made public? Perhaps the Minister for Justice could be asked to come to the House to discuss this issue and how it will be dealt with.