Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy. It is a matter of great regret that the childcare scheme for healthcare workers cannot go ahead. The focus of the Minister, Ms Zappone, and the Department of Children and Youth Affairs for the next couple of weeks will be to get crèches and childcare facilities open by the end of June for all essential front-line workers first, and then more broadly after that. I know that the Minister and the Department put a lot of work into developing this scheme. They developed it, and there was consultation, perhaps not enough, with the sector, and they secured the funding for it. Ultimately, for lots of different reasons, not just insurance, the uptake from the childcare sector was very low. It gave numbers of reasons beyond insurance, including issues around Garda vetting or the general concern that a childcare provider would have in being responsible for an employee who is not on their premises but is in somebody's private home. The sector gave lots of reasons it was not willing to sign up to it in the numbers we would have needed.

I was not aware of the insurance issue. The first I heard about that was on the RTÉ news. That is not to say that others were not aware of it in the Department of Children and Youth Affairs or even in my Department. Unfortunately, given the nature of my job, it is not possible to be aware of everything. I am sure the Deputy would appreciate that. I am actually not sure that insurance is quite the issue it is being made out to be. There are tens of thousands of workplaces in Ireland open today, private and public sector. There will be tens of thousands more workplaces in Ireland open next week. They will open notwithstanding the fact that they do not have insurance against a virus because the truth is this is a new virus. It is a deadly virus but it is not the first virus we have dealt with and not the only deadly virus we have dealt with. I am not sure it has ever been the case that insurers have indemnified employers for the possibility of being sued over getting a virus. That is something that needs to be considered but I am not sure it is the barrier that perhaps it is being made out to be because there are already so many workplaces in Ireland open now this week, and which will open next week, that are potentially a higher risk than a childcare facility, and yet that insurance does not exist.

I am not sure that it is possible to indemnify someone against getting a virus or that one would have much of a case if one tried to sue. I could go into any house, office or workplace tomorrow and pick up a virus, bug or bacteria. For me to prove that it was someone else's fault would be an unusual case to make. One would only have a case if somebody deliberately tried to infect one or was totally negligent in his or her actions. I would not like to indemnify anyone who deliberately tried to infect someone or was negligent in their actions. This requires some thought but I am not sure that the Deputy's analysis is correct.

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