Richard Boyd Barrett demands transparency on COVID-19
Richard Boyd Barrett spoke on 23 April 2020 about the state's response to COVID-19, urging full transparency and stronger public provision of health services. He argued against a return to a semi-privatised health system, criticised lack of access to expert advice, and pressed for protections for workers, nursing homes and people experiencing homelessness.
Appeal for transparency
Mr Boyd Barrett described attending the first Nethith briefing on February 20 and said his office repeatedly requested the modelling and the expert advices provided to Nethith but never received them. He said this lack of disclosure undermines public confidence and repeated calls for the government to publish the expert advice and the curve of capacity and likely infections.
Concerns over private hospital deal and profiteering
He called for transparency around any deal with private hospitals and warned it would be unacceptable if wealthy private interests benefited from the public health emergency. He said there are "deep concerns and suspicions" that some are profiting and urged the Taoiseach to respond to those concerns.
Demand for a fully public, resourced health service
Mr Boyd Barrett insisted there must be no return to a "semi-privatised, two-tier, fragmented, under-resourced health service" and used nursing home outbreaks as evidence of the costs of fragmentation. He argued that all healthcare capacities and services should be brought under a national, fully public health system and that the government must commit to that immediately.
Housing, homelessness and direct provision
He warned against a return to overcrowded homeless accommodation or the continuation of direct provision, calling both immoral and incompatible with protecting public health. He also criticised empty properties held by speculators and vulture funds when such accommodation could protect public health.
Worker protections and Debenhams intervention
He raised concerns for workers, specifically naming Debenhams and noting Bank of Ireland's shareholding and the government's stake in that bank. He said there must be intervention to guarantee workers do not lose income, that they receive decent pay and conditions, and that workers should not pay the bill for the public health emergency.
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First of all, on behalf of People Before Profit, let me once again extend my deepest sympathies to anybody who's lost family or loved ones, my support and best wishes to anybody who's received a positive diagnosis for COVID and can I once again pay tribute to all those frontline health workers and essential workers who are protecting us all and indeed pay tribute to the wider public who have owned unquestionably through their sacrifice and hardship have succeeded in flattening the curve and protecting our health services from being overrun. If people have, and they clearly have, genuinely embraced the idea that we're all in it together, the idea of solidarity that is necessary to overcome this challenge, then that has to work both ways from the government that calls for that. And I have to say, I am frustrated at the failure of the government to be fully transparent and communicative about key things. My office was the only office that turned up to the first Nethith briefing on February the 20th on the COVID-19 pandemic. And at that meeting, my office representative asked for the modelling, the famous curve of capacity and likely infections. Never got it. Never got it. Never got it. Never got it. Never got it. Directly following that meeting, we asked and have asked on multiple occasions for the advices that the expert advisory group gave to Nethith on all of the key issues. Never got it. This underlines Alan Kelly's point earlier on. We've been asking that for five or six weeks now. Can we see the advices from the experts to Nethith? Never got it. Why? I don't understand, but it doesn't exactly engender confidence. Big questions around the deal with private hospitals. We need transparency on that deal. It would be completely unacceptable if some of the richest people in this country were to benefit or profit from this public health emergency. And there are deep concerns and suspicions that that's what's happening. But I want to put it to the Taoiseach that, and I hope we will get responses on those points. I want to put it to the Taoiseach. There are certain lessons that are simply beyond dispute arising out of this crisis. First of all, there can be absolutely no question of any return to a semi-privatised, two-tier, fragmented, under-resourced health service. That can never happen. Never happen again. We've seen the cost with the nursing homes. I met a GP who I know I play football with the other day, who told me his nursing home is overrun with Covid. Most of the staff have it. Many, many of the patients have it. They've been trying to contact the HSE for weeks. As he said, the ball was just dropped. We were not on their radar. That's what you get if you have a fragmented health system. With different parts, under the control of different people, with different motives. So we need a properly resourced, fully public national health system. And all healthcare capacities and services need to be brought in under such a national health system. And that has to happen immediately. That commitment must be given by the government immediately. There can be no return to people living in overcrowded homeless conditions, or to the direct provision status quo. That simply cannot happen. It was immoral before this crisis hit. It is now completely incompatible with the protection of public health. There can be no continuation of a situation where empty properties are in the hands of speculators and vulture funds, when people in overcrowded conditions need those owned or accommodations to protect their public health. There can be no return to the disastrous austerity that we saw after the 2008 crash, and the reliance on the market to solve key issues. That means we have to protect workers. And I cite the Debenhams, and I was specifically asked by the Debenham workers to raise it. Bank of Ireland is a shareholder in Debenhams. The government is a shareholder in Bank of Ireland. If we want to engender solidarity and we're all in it together, how can we let Debenhams, who continue to operate in the north of this island, in Britain, making profits, and which the government have a shareholding in, treat workers like that? There needs to be intervention, but there needs to be a guarantee that workers will not suffer loss of income, and the workers will get decent pay and conditions, and not pay the bill for the public health emergency we are now trying to fight. Do you know that there is an investment bank to FAe? Many of them have a fee. Can digital bank margin? We will have an investment bank stammer onntثman. Because there is a strong aussage for this şey. New account bankers and corporate central bankers are a smallardı Fund. Now account investors who have Win賤 발 finding cómo harづ First they call rah sell relação, for example, because of the big money they do,
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