Dáil Speech by FF Leader during Statements on COVID-19

As of this week one and a half thousand people in the Republic and almost four hundred and fifty people in the North have lost their lives due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Our first thoughts must be with them, their families and those who are today still struggling to overcome the virus.

The virus remains a serious threat and there is no basis whatsoever for arguing for a rapid lifting of all restrictions. However, there are significant questions to be asked about actions on particular issues.

The restarting of basic parliamentary accountability is welcome. I would like to acknowledge the constructive approach of the Covid-19 Committee and its elected Chairperson Deputy McNamara. We wish it well in its work and expect that all who are asked to assist it will do so.

We should increase discussions about what can be done to bring the Oireachtas back to as close to normal working as possible, consistent with the public health situation. There are many critical areas where public oversight and debate is required, and Deputies are eager to be able to fulfil their mandates more effectively.

As I have said here over the last two months, during a fast moving and unprecedented crisis the last thing you can afford is to be defensive when issues are raised. The most comprehensive and effective emergency responses always involve making space for challenging voices – and a willingness to quickly and comprehensively admit the need to adopt different approaches.

Undoubtedly mistakes have been made and are being made – but I think it is important to reassure everyone involved in the response across our public sector in particular that no one expects an error-free response. The expertise of the professionals involved is something we must respect and honour. There are judgement calls to be made and there is a central role which must increasingly be played by broader public policy. As long as these judgement calls are based on a full engagement with the science and an inclusive and transparent procedure we should acknowledge the good faith involved

This is why when we reach a stage where we must turn to planning future responses to either a second-wave or a new pandemic we need to adopt an approach of learning lessons rather than seeking to apply blame.

And we need to have a more inclusive and multi-disciplinary approach to how measures are developed and agreed.

During these debates Fianna Fáil’s spokespeople are setting out a range of questions based on the input of people from every sector and every part of the country. I would like to acknowledge the constructive and helpful way in which both individuals and organisations have been contacting us to give their observations and concerns.

As has been said here every week over the past month the deal in relation to private hospital capacity simply has to be reviewed. It is now a full part of a system-wide problem of the collapse in diagnostic and treatment activity for non-Covid cases.

My party believes that as we move into a wider challenge there is a need to more systematically engage sectors and general expertise in the discussions.

As we pointed out last month when it was announced, the failure to include childcare professionals in the discussions in the design of childcare supports for frontline workers was a fatal weakness in the government’s approach. As such no one was surprised by yesterday’s announcement that the main scheme has been suspended because only 6 providers were willing to participate.

Similarly, we see from the internal proposals concerning the Leaving Certificate which are outlined in the media this morning show a process which should have led to a much earlier announcement of the cancellation of exams. These documents show that there was no credible way under discussion to maintain social distancing, employ sufficient invigilators or even to examine more than half of the normal range of topics.

The uncertainty and public disagreements about what should be done could have been avoided if this information had been shared much earlier. Instead we had a debate based on the false premise that there was a confidence that the exams could be held.

The private hospital deal was an emergency response to the need to create a surge capacity. For nearly a month it has been clear that this surge capacity is not likely to be required at present. In recent days it was suggested that 30% of the capacity might be used to treat public patients. Yet this came on the same day that it was revealed that 1,181 general hospital beds are vacant.

The situation is a mess and there is clearly a lack of a comprehensive strategy on to how to get other hospital activity back as comprehensively as is responsible.

There are many proposals emerging but it is not clear that these are being engaged with in a systematic way.

For example, the numbers of people who need early diagnostics has not declined yet the number accessing diagnostics has drastically fallen. It has been suggested by some that a procedure of pretesting every diagnostics patient in advance would allow many facilities to operate at close to normal capacity.

It is a perfectly legitimate question to ask about why we are spending many millions on hospital capacity we do not believe we will need – and which we could quickly recontract were an unexpected surge to happen?

The situation in relation to meat plants is gravely serious and it is not obvious that these clusters are being dealt with comprehensively. Without calling for the shutting down of the sector, it seems very surprising that the blanket testing of a facility is followed by no interruption of work until the results are returned. Would it not be reasonable to halt production for a deep clean and putting in place of new control measures while waiting for the results? Simply sending workers back to work – and indeed not testing their families does not make sense, particularly given the Minister’s assurance that testing capacity is not an issue.

I think we should acknowledge the excellent work of many journalists at national and local level in being willing to ask tough questions. The fact is that many issues fundamental to the response have only been fully explained to the public because of their persistence.

The simple fact is that testing and tracing is fundamental to increasing our options and it is happening faster in other countries. In recent days an issue about the lack of integration of records and the impact of errors in data inputting has been revealed.

It has been said that we need the entire testing and contact tracing continuum to be completed within three days. However, information supplied by the HSE to journalists yesterday says that the median time the process is taking in the community is five days – with many examples of much longer times.

Much has been achieved since the issue of capacity, delays and missed targets for testing was a dominant one. This has to be acknowledged.

However we need to hear clarity on what is to be done to bring down testing and tracing times so that we are happy that we can quickly identify and respond to new clusters.

In relation to face coverings, the issue has gone on for too long. There is a broad scientific acceptance of two basic findings. First of all, basic coverings do no harm in practice and appear to limit the spread. Second, they are an important part of encouraging appropriate behaviour in public and are critical to getting public confidence to a stage where public transport becomes a viable mass transit option again.

Fears that the introduction of a face covering policy would undermine the supply of PPE seem overblown when you see the impact in many countries.

It’s time for this issue to be definitively addressed.

And we also need to hear much more detail about the exact financial impact of the crisis on our public companies and institutions. The Dáil will soon have to have a substantive debate and vote on financial matters so we need to start having an informed discussion now about what emergency measures may be required to support these companies and institutions.

Fianna Fáil would like to acknowledge yesterday’s High Court ruling on the validity of emergency measures which the Dáil has agreed in recent months. Quite apart from the legal position, there is also no doubt about the strong public support for these measures.

I believe that this support will continue but what we need now is a more inclusive and transparent process for discussing how we proceed. We are out of the acute phase of the response and a much broader range of voices need to be brought into the discussions. Only then will we retain public support and ensure that policies are soundly based and effective in both opening up our country and ensuring that we limit risks to public health.