Senator Gerard Craughwell- speech from 16 Dec 2021

Thank you very much. I'd just like to join with colleagues wishing everybody in the Houses of the Oireachtas a very happy Christmas and to all of the people who keep this country working over what has been the most difficult two years. I'm particularly mindful of those who will be on duty over Christmas, members of the Defence Forces, the Fire Service, Ambulance, Hospitals, etc. I know from friends who are working in hospitals, they are jaded now. They are really, really jaded and suffering severe exhaustion after two years of constant working with PPE, working with COVID, in some cases dealing with very difficult patients because they're being moved back in queues because hospitals have to deal with the current crisis. So I am mindful of them today and I think we should be sending our good wishes to them. Certainly where the vaccines are concerned and the boosters, I would make an appeal today to those who email me on a regular basis telling me all the bad things about vaccines. Give it up for God's sake. If you don't want the vaccine, fine, but don't try and turn me and other people with you. Let me have my vaccine. I'm delighted I got the booster. I queued up for three and a half hours for it and I'd queue up for 13 hours if I had to. I want to be protected. I want my family protected. One side of my family is currently down, four of them with COVID, a four-year-old, a six-year-old and their parents and it's not a nice experience. But thankfully they had the vaccine and it's not as severe as it might have been. So please, if you don't want the vaccine, fine. Do me two favours. One, don't contact me to tell me I shouldn't have it. And two, don't occupy a hospital bed I may need at some stage in the future because you decided not to have a vaccine. So I'll leave it at that, Carheerlach. And once again, thank you yourself for being kind enough to give us speaking time every now and then. Thank you.