Paul Murphy demands enforceable air quality standards for COVID

Thanks, Chair. Thanks a lot, everybody, for the contributions to the debate. Obviously, there is a very strong support for the bill, strong support for taking action on the crucial issue of ventilation to prevent the spread of COVID and to give workers the right to clean air. So, that is welcome. Maybe to address some of the smaller questions that came up from opposition deputies, first of all, and then go to the question of the government. One, a number of TDs raised the question about whether schools are concerned that schools would not be covered by the bill, and I can assure them that schools are definitely workplaces, teachers who are not volunteers, they work, and so, therefore, schools are definitely covered by the bill. And the second question was raised about who will pay. Of course, as deputies will know, as an opposition party, we cannot bring forward a bill that includes any costs, either on the state or on businesses. So, we are not able to outline who should pay. However, I am very happy to speak about who should pay, which is that, certainly in schools, in public buildings, the state should pay. The cost is not massive, an estimated 50 million euros to cover pubs, restaurants, schools, public buildings. 12 million, 12 million for schools alone, money that will save lives, but will also even save money in terms of the impact on the health service. Secondly, we think that grants should be made available for small businesses to enable them to provide CO2 monitors in all pubs and restaurants, so people can see them, so workers can see them, as well as customers, and where necessary, HEPA filters. I want to underscore here, while we welcome the fact that the government is saying they will not oppose the bill, and let us get into that in a minute about what that actually means, but underscore the fact that it is scandalous that we are now almost two years into a pandemic, and that it is an opposition party, people for profit, forced to bring forward legislation to say that workers should have the right to clean air. That is scandalous. And the government says, oh, well, there is already a legal right for sufficient fresh air. That is true. I discussed it with Minister English yesterday at a committee, but the central point being is that there is no definition of that. There is no reference to, oh, that means so many parts per million of CO2, so it is effectively meaningless. I was a bit concerned in the final response there from the government, that ventilation is already addressed in the protocol, and adequately addressed, and so on, and Minister English earlier referenced, well, the protocol and the guidance, and so on, but the central problem there is that all of that is optional. All of it. It is guidance. It is not mandatory. Some of what was included in the Department of Education was also wrong in terms of pointing to 1,500 parts per million, rather than 900 parts per million of CO2. But the crucial central issue is that you need a legally binding standard of air quality. I also previously discussed this with the senior minister, Minister Varadkar, who at the time, three or four months ago, did not seem to know that we did not have any binding legislation. Again, his absence from this debate is a little bit concerning about the priority that is placed by the government on this issue. It is clear that over the summer, the government put all of their eggs in the basket of vaccination. Vaccination is absolutely crucial, no question about it. But things like ventilation, testing and contact tracing were cut. No serious action was taken to increase ICU capacity to withstand further surges. The government sat back and hoped that the vaccines would do all the work for them. Instead of that, we need a vaccine plus strategy, which includes vaccination, ventilation and vastly increased testing. On vaccination, we need the boosters as soon as possible, but we also have to push for lifting the patents so that the whole world can be vaccinated to lessen the chance of more and deadly variants. Ventilation is an important measure of prevention, along with hand hygiene and mask wearing. We must also be stepping up the use of FFP2 and other quality masks, giving far more protection, providing them free of charge. Vastly increased testing, including free antigen tests and proper backward and forward contact tracing, is also crucial to help us bring the outbreaks that do take place under control. In relation to the central point of the government, two points I would make. One, we welcome the idea that they are not opposing the bill. Obviously, we have been here before on other bills. We have managed to get other bills passed at second stage. The sex education bill is currently languishing three or four years after it was passed the second stage, and nothing has happened on that. Children still don't have the right to objective sex education, religious ethos of schools still can stand in its way. You take the climate emergency bill to leave fossil fuels in the ground, blocked by money message. So, you know, we are open, absolutely happy to meet with the department, happy to consider what way this can go forward, no problem. But forgive us some scepticism and us saying that we are going to keep the pressure up to demand that we get the change that we need. Because often the government feels under pressure on an issue and says, OK, well, we can't block it here, but finds a different way to block it. The bottom line point is that we are not precious about exactly how legally this is implemented. If it could be done rapidly through regulation, certainly we will be open to that. But the bottom line point is legally enforceable standards for air quality that are then checked and observed and sanctions and consequences for workplaces that don't meet them. They are the bottom line points that, from our point of view, are absolutely non-negotiable. I note that Minister English earlier on spoke about the danger of overburdening the Health and Safety Authority. But I would pose that in a very different way. The point is that the Health and Safety Authority is massively under-resourced. Again, I discussed it yesterday with the Minister. I made the point that Budget 2022 expenditure report claimed that the Health and Safety Authority now has greatly increased staff. But it was revealed in March that the HSA had actually only hired one extra inspector in 2020 and three additional inspectors in this year for a total of 70 inspectors. Completely inadequate. We saw the failures of that in terms of the meat plants earlier. We see the open outbreaks in the meat plants again taking place now. The truth is that the amount of total funding going to the HSA has actually fallen whenever you take into account income from sources other than direct funding from the Department. Another point I would make quickly is that a failure, a fact that the Government has not moved on the issue of ventilation, has not produced legislation on the issue of ventilation, has also had an impact in terms of the public health messaging. I think we've all been in pubs and restaurants and hotels and public transport where the right things are being done in terms of hand sanitising, hand sanitiser all over the place, everything being sanitised, but not a window open in the place. And that is a real failure and the public health messaging has to change. COVID was handled in general disastrously in Britain. One thing you can say about the messaging of the NHS now is that they place an emphasis correctly on the issue of airborne transmission. They talk about, they've got pictures, got diagrams, showing people how COVID hangs around and therefore the importance of ventilation. And I would also make the point, I think in some contributions, there was a sense that perhaps HEPA filters are an alternative to masks or an alternative to having windows open. And it's certainly not as simple as that. These are layered measures that all add up, collect together to improve ventilation. And so generally we're talking about these happening in addition to mask wearing. But particularly when you're dealing with schools, for example, and cold temperatures, and this is where the advice of the expert group came in. And that it means you can have a situation where perhaps the windows don't have to be open as much for as long, etc. Because you have the HEPA filters in the context of very cold weather. I also want to just finish on the point that, you know, while it's welcome today, the government saying we won't oppose it. OK, and we try and push forward and try and make sure this happens as soon as possible, because we can't delay in a pandemic. It is in contrast with the responses of Minister Donnelly just last night on RTE. You know, an incredible position that he is continuing to hold, that he's going to follow the advice of those who are not experts on the question of ventilation. He's going to ignore the advice of all those who are experts on the question of ventilation and isn't going to act on the question of HEPA filters. I will quote the NEFET expert group on ventilation back in March. HEPA filter devices may be useful in reducing airborne transmission in spaces within sufficient ventilation. The Department of Education back in May of this year, where the practical measures for the deployment of good ventilation practices have been undertaken, and poor ventilation continue to exist in a particular room area, air cleaners may be considered as an additional measure in conjunction with other methods of ventilation that are available. In such a scenario, you should consider a room air cleaner with a HEPA filter. And it seems to me that there's a point about costs here, that it's a very small amount of money, but the Government doesn't want to go there. And the consequence is that those schools that can manage to scrape together the money to put in place HEPA filters, can provide them for their students, and those who don't have the money simply can't. And that is wrong, and the Government doesn't have to wait for a committee stage or discussions or anything else. They can move on that tomorrow, and provide HEPA filters for every classroom in the State. Thanks.