Mr. Eddie Wilson:

In the case of Germany, the death rate from Covid-19 is 70% less than in Ireland and it is acknowledged as the European leader in this. The Deputy can bang around about numbers and the R number, but the World Health Organization says that infections will move all the time, the numbers will go up and down.

There is no point in having this self-congratulatory narrative that we will somehow or other eradicate this completely. The medical evidence says that we will live with it for many years and the way to do that is to manage it within our own countries through track and trace and testing. The idea that it is all "over there" and that if we close the borders it will not be all over here is not the way to go. For an island economy to do that will inflict structural damage that will be reaped in the next six months and continue for years. We are the oil of the engine of this economy.