Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the House and thank him for attending this important debate. Yet again we are at a crossroads in the context of Covid-19. It is a bit like Groundhog Day with a recurring pandemic that continues to baffle eminent immunologists and virologists. We must certainly keep our guard up.

I endorse the remarks made by my colleague and friend, Senator Burke, about the hospitality sector. The Minister is very much aware of the need for us to continue our supports for the hospitality sector. We know well that the sector has been badly hit by the pandemic. It is not in the gift of the Department but the Government can make a decision on whether to extend and retain the EWSS employment support at the levels we had for November. I ask that we give ongoing support, as we have done, to the industry in the first couple of months of 2022 in order to assist the employers in the hospitality sector to sustain livelihoods through the retention of jobs thus ensuring the survival of the hospitality sector.

I could read emails into the record of the House that I have received from friends of mine who work as employers and employees in the hospitality sector. Both the employers and employees are fearful and worried about the future of the hospitality sector and where they will be come January and February of next year. One person said to me that the exit plan announced a few months ago was based on a set of circumstances as predicted at the time but now we are in a different situation where quarter 1 of next year could be catastrophic. That is just an example. I will not dwell on the hospital sector too much more only to say that the rate of room occupancy has fallen and it is important that we support the sector.

I wish to make a point about the vaccination programme. Last Sunday in Cork, it took people four hours to progress through a walk-in vaccination centre, which is an inordinate amount of time. I appeal to the Minister to reopen Parc Uí Chaoimh and the Munster Technological University, MTU, where we had successful vaccination centres. I also appeal to him to consider using community pharmacies, pharmacies and GPs as a means to ratchet up the vaccination and booster programmes.

It is important to have a balanced debate on schools. I have spoken to school teachers and young students about the wearing of masks in school and found that the vast majority have no difficulty doing so. There are people who like to whip up hysteria and I do not understand why. We should ensure that there is an element of balance in what happens in the ongoing battle against Covid-19. The measures announced by the Government this week are important. Our challenge is to protect each other and public health must trump everything we do. It is important that we get booster vaccines delivered as quickly as possible. I welcome that Brian MacCraith coming back. It is also important, in the context of the future of the vaccine roll-out, that we use every arm of the State available to ensure that vaccines are given to people.

We need an overarching debate on working from home in terms of public health measures and bed capacity. My overarching request to the Government is that we retain for the hospitality sector the employment wage subsidy scheme at November levels.