Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate the Acting Chairman's explanation. I thank the Deputies for their contributions. However, the Members here today who have insisted on this Dáil sitting have shown a complete disregard for our national fight to contain Covid-19. Shame on you. They have forced us to stray from home rather than stay at home, which is completely contrary to public health guidelines and nothing to do with any public representative shirking his or her responsibilities. As the Minister, Deputy Harris, said, there is no reason we could not have done this remotely. We have already seen the European Parliament achieve that. As he said, with a little ingenuity, it could be achieved. I just wanted to say that at the outset.

We are learning more about Covid-19 but there is much we do not know.

In particular, we do not know how long this public health emergency is going to last. As the Minister for Health, Deputy Simon Harris, said earlier, many lives have already been cruelly taken by this virus. I would like to express my condolences to all of those who have been bereaved. We are focused on minimising the impact of Covid-19 on our society and our economy. We have had to take a number of very serious and difficult decisions concerning our everyday activities so we can take appropriate public health measures to limit the spread and impact of the virus insofar as is possible.

The modelling work which is being done by the subgroup of the national public health emergency team has shown that the public health measures taken to date have had a very significant effect. The number of cases we have had is lower than it would be in an unmitigated epidemic. However, that is no reason to be complacent. In fact it urges us to ensure we carry on listening to the advice of our public health experts. Our efforts to mitigate the impact on everybody living in Ireland and on our economy and society must continue.

See this speech in context