Michael McNamara (Clare, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Lastly, Mr. Walsh is a businessman, and businessmen take risks. Most of the risks he has taken have paid off, but one cannot live in a zero-risk world. It is simply impossible. Mr. Walsh is also an Irishman so he understands Ireland and Irish politics. That is clear from the multiple references he has made and the fact that he was chairman of a State board. How does he account for the way in which Ireland became captured by the zero Covid crew in a way that no other European country did and that we became so understandably frightened of Covid but completely risk-averse such that we were frightened of Covid to the exclusion of almost anything else? It seemed almost impossible to have any other consideration in Ireland for a number of months.