Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Government's objective right now is to prevent any further surges, hence the cautious approach to date in reopening sectors of society. Our strategy has worked since Christmas but it has been very difficult for people and it has been very difficult for various sectors of the economy in particular. Companies have been hanging in there to try to keep themselves alive during a very difficult period for them, economically speaking and in terms of viability.

We have taken the pressure off the health service substantially. It was in a terrible state in January. The numbers were just too high and the pressure on the system was too high. We got case numbers down. Now the vaccination is going up apace. Currently, I think we are at about 25%, or so it is my understanding, although Deputy Barry might have mentioned 20%. We were at 25% some days ago in relation to that so we are in a good position. As vaccination increases, we hope we can avoid the scenario that has been outlined. We know that the vaccines have been effective. The incidence of death and severe illness has gone way down among those who have been vaccinated. Within the week we will have 95% of all over-70s vaccinated with a first dose of a vaccine, which offers huge protection. We have all the nursing home residents and front-line health care workers vaccinated with first doses, and also, substantially, the over-70s, more or less. We are into the 60s age cohort now. The point I am making is that we can avoid this if we do it right because of the vaccination combined with the progress we have made to date.