Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome this opportunity to update the special committee on Ireland's ongoing response to Covid-19. The committee heard earlier today from the HSE, the acting Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Glynn, and Professor Nolan about Ireland's operational response to Covid-19 and the prevalence of the virus in our country at this time. I will take this time, therefore, to update the committee on Ireland's approach and the priorities from now until Christmas.

Earlier this year, Ireland and countries across Europe locked down as Covid spread relentlessly through our communities. Around the world, tens of millions of people have been affected and hundreds of thousands of people have lost their lives. Many lives have been lost here in Ireland as well, and we mourn every single one of them. It has been a very difficult year for everyone and absolutely heartbreaking for those who have lost family and friends due to Covid-19.

Staff across the healthcare system have worked tirelessly to prepare an already overburdened health system to cope with Covid-19. The people of Ireland worked every day and sacrificed much to comply with the lockdown, keep essential services running and flatten the curve.

As countries across Europe began to open up, Covid-19 started to spread again. Countries across Europe are now acting to suppress the virus and here in Ireland we are doing the same. The first chapter in our fight against Covid-19 was focused on flattening the curve. The country was locked down. Schools and colleges were closed. Businesses were closed. Much hospital and community care was stopped. People isolated by staying at home. Sports, arts and community activities were cancelled. This approach did flatten the curve but, as we all know, it came at a considerable cost.

We are now in the second chapter of the fight against Covid-19. From now until at least Christmas, our focus will be on suppressing the virus to allow us to reopen society and schools, colleges and health services and to protect jobs and those who are most vulnerable to this awful virus. Because we know more about the virus now, it has been possible to bring in localised measures where cases grew locally and to bring in national measures as necessary to limit the suppression of the virus through targeted national measures. Because tens of thousands of tests are being done every week, it has been possible to act quickly and suppress the virus as it tries to move, once again, through our communities.

Last week, we learned something very important. Thanks to the amazing efforts of the people of counties Kildare, Laois and Offaly, we know that localised measures can work. Without doubt, the people of Kildare, Laois and Offaly have saved many lives.

They have saved lives in their own community. By helping to suppress the spread of the virus around the country, they have saved lives all over Ireland. For that we owe them a debt of gratitude. We know that measures that avoid lockdown by seeking out and minimising the situations in which the virus spreads are what we now want to use. That is the approach we are using across Ireland. It involves targeted measures to suppress the virus while keeping as much of our society and our economy open as possible.

In the Department of Health we are preparing for the winter. A comprehensive winter plan is being developed with many measures already in place. As has been the case since the first day Covid-19 arrived in Ireland, Government decisions are informed by the recommendations and advice of NPHET, which monitors the evolving evidence in Ireland and around the world. NPHET, in turn, is guided by the recommendations of the World Health Organization and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. We are grateful for their assistance.

I thank the Chairman and the members of the committee for this opportunity. I look forward to a good discussion with them in the coming hours on Covid-19.