Micheál Carrigy (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister. Before coming here to speak, I printed off a copy of the Covid restrictions and the new measures being introduced. Reading through the list, I saw that the vast majority of our society is open. Quite limited measures have been put in place. As Senator Buttimer said, much hysteria has been driven by certain groups, factions and political parties. They are causing angst in people, which s very regrettable when we are dealing with something as serious as this.

I have a number of issues, particularly about the education system. The Minister for Education, Deputy Foley, will come before the House tomorrow to speak about education and I will direct some of my questions to her. There is an issue with regard to medical certification for youngsters in the context of wearing masks. Perhaps there was a slip of the tongue by the Minister for Education earlier. It is something to be addressed. Children who cannot wear masks because their glasses keep fogging up and who are not able to study properly should not have to get medical certificates. This should be a matter for common sense on the part of principals in schools.

Vaccination is the key to everything. Collectively, we have stood firmly behind it. We are up to a vaccination rate of 93%. Unfortunately, 7% of the population made the decision not to get vaccinated. We should introduce more measures with regard to using the vaccine certificate for certain services in order to try to increase the rate. I spoke to a nurse manager at one of the hospitals in Dublin where up to 60% of the beds in ICU and the hospital in general are taken up by members of that 7% of the population. What is more worrying is the fact that in the hospital in question, four of the theatre nurses are unvaccinated. These nurses cannot be rostered into theatre. They are still working in the hospital and earning their weekend rates or whatever they might have been getting when they were in theatre. They are putting more pressure on the existing staff, who are overworked as it is, by the fact they have not received the vaccine. The nurse manager must then try to get agency staff for cover them, while dealing with other staff members being out because of being close contacts. We need to make a strong decision on this with regard to everyone in the health service needing to be vaccinated. Other countries have done this. There might be kickbacks from mules, but Covid is not going to end in the short term. We will be dealing with it in the long term. The health service and health staff have worked extremely hard over long hours. Some of them have not had holidays. They have not done things with their own families. It is incumbent on the small percentage in the health system who have not been vaccinated. We have to take a serious look at this.

I concur with the comments of Senator Buttimer on the hospitality industry. I know the latter does not fall under the remit of the Department. Over recent weeks, we have seen huge numbers of events that were planned for over Christmas being cancelled. The businesses involved will take a serious hit. At Cabinet level, we must insist that the employment wage subsidy scheme continues. Otherwise, many of these businesses will not survive. There is also a responsibility on the hospitality industry to check Covid certificates of people going into their premises. A strong percentage are not doing so. All of us know the places we have gone. I have left places that have not asked for the certificate. I purposely showed my certificate. A significant number of places are not asking. The vintners and the Irish Hotels Federation have to have a strong campaign. If the Government is to support them, which I am pretty confident it will, they have to support the measures we are putting in place to make sure we look after our population and ensure we do not go back into a lockdown.

I want to ask about deaf pupils. It is an issue in schools. Today I spoke to an organisation that represents parents. There will be a severe difficulty for these children with regard to lip reading. Perhaps there can be discussions with the INTO in this regard in order that some concessions might be made.

The Minister is doing a good job. We are looking after our people and that is our responsibility as public representatives. We are ahead of almost every other country in Europe with regard to how we are dealing with it. As a Government, we are probably not communicating it properly to people. Much of this has to do with the fact that certain groups and political parties are trying to muddy the waters with the information going out.