Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I wish to raise in the House and bring to the attention of the Acting Leader a point that has been made by Members of both Houses in the last while but which now needs emphasis. We are going into the Christmas period. We are facing uncertainty over Covid and how it is developing. Most people would be of the view that we must be cautious. However, one thing that has not gone away you know is the necessity for Oireachtas accountability. I ask the Acting Leader to speak to the Cabinet about reinstating the Special Committee on Covid-19 Response. It was chaired by Deputy McNamara and did a good job in difficult circumstances for a period of time. I will take the booster vaccination programme as an example, and I wrote about this. I did so chiefly because I became eligible for a booster jab myself but nobody contacted me to say so. I took the initiative, went to my GP and got it. What struck me was there was a data bank that was in a position to send me a text before and could have done so again. I do not want to carp about the chaos we have seen with long queues and all the rest of it. However, I want some degree of Oireachtas supervision and accountability from the HSE as to how the booster programme, which is of vital importance, is being managed. The right way to do it is to have a specialist committee to which the HSE would be answerable on a weekly basis to explain what is happening.