Róisín Garvey (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire. It is nice to see Deputy Varadkar in the House again. The Irish people care and worry a lot about Covid. They want to protect each other, as can be seen from our high vaccination rate. They are smart people. They do not need to be forced to do anything. They have embraced most of the public health advice. It is very important that we are very clear as to what we are asking them to do and why. That is one thing that we, as a Government, have failed to do. Our communications have left much to be desired. We have a three-party coalition but we need to speak with one voice on anything we are bringing to the public because the media and the Opposition love to tear us to shreds and divert attention from the important things we are asking people to do. It is important that we have one unified voice because there is sometimes some confusion. This is not necessarily always the Government's fault but, when we see leaks from people in NPHET or Cabinet, it is no wonder that people get confused. That is one thing I wanted to raise while the Minister is in the House. We need our communications to be much clearer and to speak with one voice as a coalition Government.

I also have a suggestion with regard to the entertainment sector. Millions of euro have been promised to support this sector, which has been shut down only a few weeks after being opened. As Senator Crowe has pointed out, businesses in this sector must operate at 50% capacity. As I suggested to the Minister, Deputy Catherine Martin, we should consider paying performers to perform twice. That way, the two 50% capacity audiences get to go to the event while the performer gets paid twice. I know that, in some instances, it is hoped the performer will do two performances for the price of one but that does not really cut the mustard if these performance fees are their bread and butter. That might be something to do. I do not know if the Minister has fully decided what to do with that money but those performers deserve to get paid twice to perform twice so that the whole audience can be embraced because we all need to be entertained nearly two years into this morbid situation in which nobody has wanted to be.

The Government has done pretty well overall. Loads of money has been thrown at every single sector while trying to figure out the best way to support them. We are a new Government and have never had a pandemic to deal with before so, all things considered, we are doing okay. The mixed messaging does not help. That is not all our fault but the people of Ireland are good at following public health advice. It is also good that we have good figures from the hospitals which show that half of Covid cases in those hospitals are among the unvaccinated 3%. That proves that the vaccinations are having an effect. That is definitely food for thought. Of course, we originally hoped the vaccinations would just stop us getting Covid but, from looking at the figures from the hospitals that feed into the advice from NPHET, it seems that the levels of ill health among those vaccinated, if they do get Covid, are much less than those among those who have not received the vaccine. That is also something we should be very clear about with people.

I keep hearing that Covid is our fault or that we do not care about people. Everybody in here really cares about the public and public health and wants the economy to recover. However, we are damned if we do open the economy and we are damned if we do not. It is quite difficult. Someone was harassing me on a radio station the other day and demanding to be told whether the schools would be closed in January. I do not have a crystal ball. None of us do. Hindsight is 20/20. Perhaps we could have done things differently. We definitely made some mistakes but, as a Government, we have not done too badly overall. We are a new three-party coalition. Perhaps that is why we need to look at our communications. If one communicates clearly with people, people will understand and do what is being asked of them.

The public health advisers base all of their decisions on physical health. We need to have some psychologists feeding into NPHET's advice as well because mental and physical health cannot be separated. We have to be able to convince people that these measures are the best thing for the nation's physical and mental health. We all know that the incidence of mental health issues has increased greatly as a result of Covid. As I said earlier, that is not the Government's fault but Covid's fault. However, at the same time, we need to consider the balance between mental and physical health. They are not separate things.

Every time the Government makes a decision, even on very simple things like asking children to wear masks in schools, we have to defend that decision. It was a pity they were told to wear masks only a day before they had to do it. Everybody needs time to adjust. That was a mistake. We should have given people a bit more time. If we are asking people to do things like this, we have to immediately tell them why.Is it because so many cases are coming in that age group? If it is that serious an issue that we are making children aged nine to 12 wear masks, should we not consider closing the schools two and a half days early on Friday week? That would give the schools three full weeks without students in them. If it really is that big an issue in schools, instead of them all working to the half-day on the Wednesday, which is 22 December, perhaps we should consider not sending them to school for those two and a half days. I know they have missed many days already but if it is so serious in schools that we are making children aged nine to 12 wear masks, perhaps we should give schools three weeks off altogether. I might be killed for asking this question, but if it is so serious that we must make kids wear masks, should schools close so we can get three weeks to stop the rise in numbers? Clear communication is so important. The only way we will succeed is if we up our game as a unified voice on what we are doing and why we are asking people to do it. Sometimes I have to go searching for the reasons we are doing something and if I have to look for them, it cannot be easy for the public to find them either.

On a final note, I know we are talking about enterprise, trade and employment. There have been great supports for small to medium enterprises and the Tánaiste has done very well in that respect. I know in the budget there was a promise of good funding for the green for micro programme and for the digitalisation of businesses. I know local enterprise offices have done huge work in getting small businesses online. There has never been a more important time for everybody in the country and all of us as a Seanad and as a people to try, if at all possible, to support local businesses. We might not be able to afford everything locally but we should at least try to make some conscious effort because small businesses support local clubs and sponsor events. They need our money more than any big multinational that makes millions of euro.

I am repeating myself. This time last year I was saying we should not worry about Mr. Bezos getting enough money for his kids to go to Irish dancing classes or whatever but we must worry about our small businesses. It has never been more important for all of us as consumers to buy local. It has been said we will spend €5 billion this Christmas so could we please put as much of that as possible into the tills of small businesses? We should buy green as well because we are in a climate emergency as well as a health emergency.

This has not been an easy time for the Tánaiste, the Taoiseach or the leader of the Green Party, Deputy Eamon Ryan. At the same time, it is up to the three of them to be really professional and clear in their communication, with one voice. It is a really important message that I wanted to get across today. I thank the Tánaiste for his time in coming to the House today.