Regina Doherty (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I was not here for the Order of Business. What I think is bizarre, given the restrictions that Senators must operate under, is I am not sure why we have a secretarial assistant.We all know that the secretarial assistants to our Dáil colleagues do all of the constituency work. Most of us do not have constituencies. It is the job of Senators to scrutinise and be that second pair of eyes to enhance and embellish legislation that is brought forward, whether Private Members' Bills or Government Bills. Senator Warfield is correct that what our secretarial assistants do is 100% parliamentary business work. Therefore, in trying to get the salary scales for them increased, which is probably very true for our Dáil colleagues too, we are fighting the wrong argument. We should be seeking to have secretarial assistants to Senators redefined as personal assistants. We need to work together and collectively with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the commission to make sure that campaign does not die, or that is not dampened down in the way it has been sought to be dampened down in the past couple of months.

I support the call by Senators Gavan, Malcolm Byrne and Rebecca Moynihan for a TRIPS waiver. Senator Gavan made the very good suggestion that he should draft a motion with regard to TRIPS waivers to be put before this House for debate to see if we can collectively arrive at a position that would call not just on the Government but on the European Commission to change their positions. As stated very clearly by Dr. Michael Ryan, and by Dr. Navarro on weekend radio, unless the world is safe, nobody is safe. The hysteria, which has been media driven in terms of the overdrive in the media on Thursday and Friday with regard to the variant, shows that we need to act now to have citizens worldwide inoculated. Otherwise, we will still be talking about the next level of variants this time next year.

Senator Buttimer asked for a debate on foreign policy, particularly with regard to the EU and the treatment of migrants. I will arrange that debate as quickly as I can because I think some of the indications, particularly on the issues between Belarus and Poland and France and the United Kingdom, and the evidence uncovered in the past couple of weeks leave an awful lot to be desired with regard to the humanity and the way we would treat people, particularly other Europeans.

Senator Malcolm Byrne spoke about the accessibility to beaches and not just in County Wexford, which I love. He spoke about a young man named Matthew McGrath. The Senator is dead right; the campaign should be a national one. I am happy to write to the Minister to ask if he will support Matthew McGrath and to see if we can get that campaign going up and down the country.

Senator Conway spoke about the vaccination programme and the success we have enjoyed to date. He is correct to highlight the issue of staff being let go, the most prominent person being Professor Brian MacCraith, when we all knew and were expecting a bonus, booster or third vaccine. The fact that we are now looking for new swabbers and people to administer the vaccinations seems a little bizarre. I thank the Senator for raising the issue this morning. I will bring his suggestion with regard to rural pharmacies to the attention of the Minister for Health.