Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The statements from the Tánaiste today reflect the debate which is always under way on how we can deal with the public health consequences of this disease and try to get people back to work and keep them in their jobs. The Tánaiste, the Taoiseach, myself and the Cabinet are always looking at what that balance is and how we can get it right and that is what has underpinned the publication of the five-stage roadmap. That five-stage roadmap looks to have a set of public health restrictions in place to reflect where we could be with the disease at any one point in time. For myself, in these kinds of debates, I have always argued that the long-term foundation of our economy recovering is our citizens having ongoing confidence in our public health. Of course, there are always discussions about how we get the balance right, stage by stage, within NPHET, between the Government and NPHET and then within Government. However, the Tánaiste and the Cabinet believe that in the roadmap we have published we are getting that balance right but we always need to be open to debating this and looking at what the right thing is to do.