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Seanad
‹ An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business

Vaccination and Bus Éireann

Summary

Senator Murphy endorsed vaccination and said he was willing to take it, then also welcomed Bus Éireann’s new services and jobs. Senator Buttimer joined the call for a debate on vaccination and urged collective leadership in promoting the vaccine.

I concur with Senator McDowell on the vaccine. I am certainly willing to take it because I believe in Professor Luke O'Neill and Professor Sam McConkey. I have great faith in these people. Most of the time medical people are right, not all the time but they are the experts. I am more than willing to lead by example with the vaccines and I hope everybody else will do the same.

I also want to raise the issue of Bus Éireann, as did Senator Garvey. I welcome the creation of new jobs and new routes. A short time ago, we had the removal of services, particularly for many rural areas. It is a very positive move by the Government and the Minister. However, there is still an issue, particularly in parts of south Roscommon and east Galway, where an awful lot of routes were closed down. I call on the Deputy Leader to contact the Minister with regard to all of the parts of east Galway, such as Ballinasloe, Creagh and Moore, into Ballydangan and Athlone and other parts of south Roscommon where, unfortunately, in recent years we have lost a service that was very important to people in isolated areas. The local bus stop has gone and it is not coming back. We have a duty and responsibility to stand up for the people affected. There were great promises about the extension of Local Link, which is a very good service operating in many parts of the country, but the right thing to do when we are expanding services is to take into account those places that have lost their bus services in recent years. Many parts of Roscommon and Galway have good services. I live along the M5 and we have a fantastic service from Westport to Dublin, which picks up people along the route and takes in almost all of the towns along the way. Bus services have disappeared from many parts of south Roscommon and parts of east Galway. People are annoyed about that. I welcome the news that more than 15% of the new posts are held by women. This is a great improvement and we need more women to apply. I really want to see services re-established. Perhaps the House will consider writing to the Minister for Transport, Deputy Eamon Ryan, on establishing something to get services moving again.

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I join Senators McDowell, Murphy and Sherlock in asking the Deputy Leader to facilitate a debate on the issue of vaccination. Many of us have been very supportive of the vaccine regime for a long time. We do not need to be told to sign a pledge to support vaccination. It is imperative that we show leadership collectively and that we dispel urgently the myth around vaccination. Vaccination works. All of us, in our roles as leaders in the House and as citizens, must promote and support vaccination. The vaccination plan being announced today, and being agreed by the Cabinet as we speak, is one we should debate in the House. It is so important that we should meet next week to debate it.

We need to support further the HSE immunisation office in terms of funding, in particular on the issue of education and the promotional work it does. I make the point separately to Senator McDowell that we should demand leadership of public representatives and we should challenge those Members of the Oireachtas who are leading anti-vaccination marches and leading the charge against vaccination to come up and debate it in these Houses in an open and transparent manner. The anti-vaccination propaganda must be challenged and debunked on behalf of all of us.

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