Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Minister is very welcome to the House. Nobody here envies the very difficult job the Minister has to do and the recommendations from public health the Minister must implement.We are 18 months into the pandemic and still firefighting to a large extent in dealing with it.

I think there is significant public buy-in. The fact that 95% of the public have opted to get the vaccine is a great news story and puts us above and beyond most other countries in the world, certainly within Europe. That has saved thousands of lives, even though that will never be acknowledged because it cannot, really. The fact is that per head of population, fewer people have lost their lives in this country than in most other countries in Europe. Our hearts go out to the people who have lost their lives and the people who suffer from long Covid. Many families, 5,000 or 6,000 at this stage, are grieving the loss of their loved ones. Everything we do here is to ensure we reduce the number of people who contract Covid and, in doing so, by extension, reduce the number of people who require ICU support and, ultimately, the number of people who lose their lives.

It has been flagged for some time now that a vaccine booster would be necessary for most of the population. The Minister might give me some reasoning as to why this happened but I cannot understand why the task force that was tasked with coming up with the recommendations on the vaccine roll-out was stood down over the summer. What was the logic and reason for standing down the task force, given the fact that a booster vaccine programme was imminent and that there was going to be advice from the national immunisation advisory committee, NIAC, in that regard? Booster vaccines are now being rolled out to the entire population. Why was the task force stood down?

I also cannot understand why people who were working in the vaccination centres were let go over the summer months and earlier in quarter 3 of this year, again, given the fact that we knew we would have to rely on a booster vaccine programme. What was the logic and the reasoning behind the HSE letting those staff go? Now the HSE is under pressure to try to re-recruit staff. Those people could have been kept on. There was plenty of work for them to do on the flu vaccine, the HPV vaccine and other work. I am just interested to know what the logic or reasoning behind letting those people go was because it should not have happened.

It saddens me to say that in the past two or three weeks, communication has not been at the level it should have been at. That is nobody's fault but it was not what it should have been. Unfortunately, there were a lot of mixed messages last week. Now we are dealing with a new variant, which will present its own challenges. We will be here on Friday dealing with the mandatory hotel quarantine legislation, which I think most people realise is necessary. I think there will be a public inquiry into Covid and its handling at some stage in the future. I believe things like the standing down of the task force and the letting go of the people working in the vaccine centres should not have happened and I would like to know why they did. As for the communications strategy, it is difficult to communicate to the public 18 months to two years into a pandemic because people are tired and weary, but we still need to ensure that the communications are distinct, clear and focused and that they work. I know that the Minister and his officials are doing their best, but there needs to be a step up in dealing with that.

I agree that schools are low-risk settings. The National Public Health Emergency Team, NPHET, has constantly said they are. There is no place where there is no risk, but certainly schools are low-risk. I support the wearing of masks in primary schools. Young people have seen their parents wear masks and have seen masks worn in the community, so I do not think it is as big an issue as people are saying it is.

I commend the Minister and offer my solidarity with him in respect of the behaviour outside his home on Sunday. It was appalling and that behaviour needs to be dealt with, as I am sure An Garda Síochána is doing. I wish the Minister well. He is leading the response to Covid on behalf of all of us and, overall, he is doing a very good job. We all wish him well.