Mattie McGrath urges PPE, rural supports and emergency measures

Good morning, thank you very much and thank you for recalling us today and indeed our business committee meeting this morning. Pretty strange and difficult times. Acknowledging the Taoiseach's address and I acknowledge the work the Taoiseach and the ministers, Minister Harris and others, Dr Tony Hoolahill and indeed all their, as has been referenced already, their supporters and all their staff, all the secretarial staff and all their advisors and indeed all the public servants, both indoors and outdoors, that have continued to work under enormous strain and difficulties and having a Ienander Eireann, Min Athle Córne Le Cairna, and it has been used here this morning already, it's a very important phrase and the whole sense of the Mehl, as I said last week, but it's a huge Hoolanian effort and has to be done to defeat this beast, as it's a from the east we call the last beast, but we call this a beast worldwide. It knows no borders, it respects no boundaries and as we can see people might think it was for people my age and older, it certainly is not. We've seen that and we thank the media as well, you know, the responsible way they've handled this, especially RT and indeed our local media, print media and indeed our local radios. Without those we wouldn't be able to function now in rural Ireland and they have a huge benefit and they must be supported. I see the Minister of Finance and I'm glad to see him thank him as well, they must be supported because these times we see the value of those institutions and we know it and people trust them now as if according to the Bible, they trust the local radio and they do, they build up that relationship with them and the local papers. I want to thank all the frontline workers, as I said, and commend them and indeed that goes right across from the nurses and student nurses have to be looked after as well where they're called up now and I did raise this with the Minister two weeks ago, Minister Harris and there was some making them found that they'd be able to be remunerated because they are putting themselves at the call of duty, they are putting themselves at risk as well and also the PPE equipment, we have to ensure that that is available and I saw a wonderful story made from a small business in Donegal where they were trained from making garments for the clergy and now they're making the protective gowns, a wonderful initiative. We will source out those kinds of entrepreneurs and have them utilised and they want to and are really willing and able and are doing it but we mustn't have nurses or doctors or consultants or anybody else, surgeons etc. Any rank having to be forced to buy their own protective equipment and worse than all not being able to get it, we must ensure that that happens. There were different times obviously and the dollars back today for specific legislation and we in the Royal Independence, representing Deputy O'Donohan and myself, representing our group, are supportive of this legislation and these measures and are willing and ready and able to engage at all times to help in any way that we can to try and sort out this. The issue of the private hospitals, yes of course it had to be done. I have people complaining to me in my office about it and look, it had to be done. This is at an emergency time and must be treated as such. Death will all be brought back to normal and I think the lessons, valuable lessons will have been learned from this whole episode when we return to normal and what normal is. Will normal ever be the same again? Maybe not. Will we be as in a mad rush, you know, for the commercialism that has taken over a lot in our society in recent decades. And it's now that we see the value of the local people, helping each other. The postman, I heard the Council of Shaini Morris this morning, also a postman from Nina, what our posts are doing actually, but the postman and women do that every day of the week. Blind eyes turn to what they do, they have that relationship and special bond and it must be there. We must think of the farming community and, in the same way I say that, as rural isolation because farming has become a very lonely and a very singular profession, one person on the farm now. When I was young, around the kitchen table, there was 13 or 14 at lunchtime. Now it's a different scenario. Many people have gone from the land, but there's a farmer on his own, his wife may be working, they may be frontline workers, they may be nursing. But we were thinking of them now and their difficulties with livestock and trying to, with the masks being closed, we must find a mechanism. And indeed, on that, the Beef Plan Ireland have come up with an app, and Minister, I'd appeal to you to look at it. Very well worthwhile, but it needs funding to put it up and running, where people could reliable and trusted sources buy and sell their livestock through this app. And the calves, the population, which is huge now, just finishing the calving season really, and the lambing season is about to start. Nature must continue, farming must continue, the cows must be milked, and we need the milk and the meat and everything else, and to supply our food chains as well. And to thank all those, the Role Holders Association Minister, the RSA must be asked, like the NCT centres I believe should be closed down, they're totally unsuitable, I raised this at the subcommittee on Monday with the Taoiseach and others. The areas are too small a waiting room, they're just not suitable, and they're a national, not a national body, but they're quasi-national and they're all the same standard, they're just not suitable. I've got lots of calls of people waiting in those waiting rooms, and it was only half hectare at the moment because they can't do inspection underneath the car, so I say suspended. Not to want anyone driving reckless, I don't, but we can't have people to self-isolate and take precautions about distancing. You're having two metres inside in those, from one corner to the other, those rooms, and I think they're all a standard, and once I've been in, I've only been two minutes. They're all a standard fit, they must be stood down, the RSA must be asked, and all the agencies and the farm inspections must be seized. They should be in the, in the reciprocal role now, and supportive role of the, of the self-implied, the haulier, and indeed the farmer, and giving support. And every other self-implied person, Deputy Grealish Minitam, they must be all helped and supported. There are one people I would also like to mention, and that is our clergy this time. No matter what denomination, people are flocking to the churches, they're flocking to the online services, and I want to compliment the clergy in Tipperary, and many other parishes who have the only online services, and are looking and imagining ways now of putting on extra services, only themselves in the church, but broadcasting to thousands, and people are getting great solace from that, and they need that. And goodness knows, we need prayer now more than ever, and that's what people are helping. Of all denominations and none, and it's, it's, it's, it's an interesting time from that point of view as well. The childcare issues, we have seen the difficulties there, and efforts have been made, and as we make an effort, the government make an effort to solve one problem, another one arises. And we have to be forbearing an understanding of that, and give them a chance to, to, to be, to, to work through it, because they all have different unintended consequences. Normal legislation that we pass here, I'm forever asking that we should have some impact analysis of how it beds in. Not to mention this wartime legislation, which I like to call it, because it is a war. It's a war against this virus, and we must treat it as that. And we must also support it at the Gardaíche corner, and it's, it's, it's wonderful to see retired members, it's wonderful to see retired members of, of the armed forces, volunteering to come back. They have a valuable expertise, a huge expertise as well, and the many 50,000 close-up people offered to come on frontline services with the HSC. We wouldn't see the light of that, and indeed Mr. Reid did tell us as well, it would take a year to do what some things have been done in a couple of days, and that's, you know, cutting through the red tape. But that couldn't be done without the goodwill of the staff, and the management, and those people and public servants, and the frontline staff, and we must start that. Another issue, and I hate to reverse a little, but it's a very important vital service minister, is the air ambulance, the community air ambulance based in the South West, and funding crisis they have, obviously is totally, or almost totally ran from fundraising. They cannot fundraise in these times, and are fast running out of money, and I'm pleading to your minister, and the minister will have to find some money somewhere to keep that, because they are doing contracts every day for the state. They are rescuing people in remote areas that couldn't be rescued by road or by care, and we need to have that, and also, similar, in my case, South Eastern Mountain Rescue Services, Civil Defence, the Red Cross, and all those agencies, I saw them out yesterday morning, somebody had fallen and got hurt in a wood, they are on call, and will be on call, but I'd ask people not to put themselves in the way of danger, to force them to go out, because they shouldn't, you know what I mean, be putting themselves in danger, because they have to look after themselves as well. And I appeal, as well, Minister, I know the Minister of Coveney is trying to deal with this, there are many, hundreds, I suppose, in Australia and other countries, mainly Australia. Some of our students were out there on work permits, some are out there on short-term visas and farming, and the farms have been closed down. They are penniless at the moment, and they can't get home. Some have put money together for the flights, they can't get home. And there are also a cohort, a sizable cohort, of experienced nurses, and paramedics and doctors, who want to come back to work here on the front line. We must get chartered planes to fly those home, to get them back into Ireland, because they're going from one airport to the next, and they're closing in front of them. We can see that, the lockdowns. But we need those people here now. They want to come here, they've decided to come back, and they want to come back and make their impression here, and answer the need. This is Ireland's call. We might sing it in the rugby and the songs, but this is a call now for the people to come out to support each other. It's in our own interest, each, every man, woman and child in the state, to look after each other, our siblings, our grandparents, and everybody else's belong to us, and have no time or truck for the people, the galutes, the yahoos, that want to spit at Gardaí, or spit at frontline services. That must be totally dealt with, and dismissed, and stop spreading in social media, because it's totally anathema to the 99% of people who want to do good, who want to do right, who want to help, and who want to be supportive of each other in this time of crisis. I'm not a good. Don't call it. Don't call it. Don't call it.