Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for her questions. I will cover as many as I can and will get written responses for the Deputy if we do not get to them all. With regard to testing and tracing, it is a key weapon in our arsenal. We rank well by international standards. The HSE has been ramping up very significantly. We had approximately 52,000 tests or thereabouts last week. One of the days last week saw the highest number of tests ever conducted in Ireland. We have serial testing being rolled out in nursing homes, direct provision centres and meat processing plants. There is a lot of community testing going on as well. As the Deputy says, randomised testing will be introduced shortly to the airports. With regard to schools, the public health advice is against that. We are obviously led by the public health advice in that way. If there is more information that can be provided to the public and the Oireachtas on an ongoing basis in terms of testing and tracing we will certainly endeavour to do that. If the committee has views on that as to how we can be helpful, Chairman, please let me know.

On wet pubs - can we just call them pubs? - the public health advice is very clear. Pubs cannot open right now. I really do understand the pain, anguish and suffering that is causing for so many publicans and their staff around the country. Based on public health advice and what is required to suppress this virus and avoid a second lockdown, that is the very clear position of the National Public Health Emergency Team. They have said that restaurants can open. It is not "wet pubs". It is pubs and restaurants. Some pubs are operating as restaurants at the moment, which is good and fine. The international evidence is that we do not see a lot of clusters coming from restaurants, which is why the recommendation from NPHET was that they open. However, it is my firm view that the moment it is deemed safe for the pubs to open, they need to open.

With regard to the GAA, I heard a lot of criticism from the GAA including singling out the acting Chief Medical Officer, which I have to say I take exception to. The acting Chief Medical Officer's job is to advise me and Government. His only focus is on saving lives. The easiest thing in the world for NPHET would have been to advise us to just close down all sports. We are at a tipping point, we could be looking at another national lockdown and we have to take this deadly seriously. It would have been quite reasonable for NPHET to say for the next three weeks, in order to protect the country and lives, we simply have to stop sports. To its great credit, it did not do that but recognised the incredibly important role sports play in our communities and for our country.

It said for that reason everyone can train and all matches can go ahead. The advice it has is that playing of the matches and training is not where the virus spreading. All it recommended was that for three weeks people did not spectate. Obviously people can attend for child protection and safety reasons. I hope that message is heard is by the amazing sporting institutions in this country, be it the GAA, the FAI, the IRFU and so on. The public health advice was to protect these organisations and to protect sport and ask only that for a short period spectators not attend because the evidence is that there are cases associated with activity before and after training and matches.