Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Like other speakers, I welcome our guests and thank them for their Herculean efforts in dealing with the virus. Things are not going in the right direction. The trend appears to be wrong. We must be more stout-hearted in our approach. If we get faint or panic, we will go in the wrong direction. My worry is that the trend is still going the wrong way. I raised this issue last week, but the trend continues. I am not suggesting that blame be apportioned anywhere, but there must be something from the information and research available to the HSE that would indicate where the worst situations are emerging. My suspicion is that it is failure to observe social distancing, but in recent days I heard a reference to house parties and pubs. Most of the pubs are only recently reopened and I do not know whether they would be within the scope of the recent assessments.

There is now a need to make a serious effort to identify the failures in the system, whether a lack of adherence to social distancing or in some other area.