Public health and Dáil attendance
Deputy Boyd Barrett argues the Dáil is spending far more per Deputy on public-health compliance than schools receive per pupil. The Ceann Comhairle responds that experts advised the earlier arrangements and says he is willing to seek more advice if needed.
Protecting public health is a priority but we have to face the fact there is a shocking contradiction. I raised this at the Covid committee so I am not grandstanding. We are spending approximately 50 times more on ensuring adherence to public health guidelines per Deputy than we are spending per pupil in school. That is shocking. The money given to schools to ensure physical distancing is approximately 50 times less per pupil than the amount of money we are spending on ensuring adherence to the public health guidelines in the Dáil. That will not fly with people. We have to address it without compromising public health. We have to focus on finding a solution to this.
Comment on this
For the information of Members generally, on the day of the summer recess, the Business Committee convened a special meeting that went on for a number of hours, where we heard submissions from a variety of experts in this particular field. It was open to any group to propose that we ignore the advice we were being given and return here. In fairness, with the exception of Deputy Mattie McGrath-----
Comment on this
-----who has consistently been of the view that we should be here all the time, everybody else saw merit in the expert advice we were being given. If we need to go back and get more expert advice in light of the points that have been made, I for one am certainly very willing to do that.