John McGahon (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

My whole thing in this debate over the past year is about perspective. I keep using the word time and again. On occasions, perspective is lost in the whole debate. The perspective is that we are performing at the most optimistic levels of where NPHET said we would be a number of weeks ago.The perspective is that this time last year, we did not have the use of vaccines, antigen tests or boosters. I refer to the communication strategy of the Government in recent days. It is perfectly acceptable, and it is the intelligent and smart thing to do, to make sure that those who are in scientific positions in this country are on the same pages as the Ministers and politicians of this country and that there is no confusion. I take this opportunity to say, from a personal point of view, that the irony was certainly not lost on me when elements of the media were criticising the Government for a mix-up in communications, when elements of the media played fastest finger first on Twitter in the past year and a half, which definitely added to the miscommunication and confusion.