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

The Deputy has asked a question and is going to get the answer. I have made it clear, and I agree with what the Deputy has said, that the reopening of our schools at the end of August is the priority. The resumption of services for non-Covid illnesses and strands of health is a priority and it is challenging and very difficult. As the Deputy has said, aiding the recovery of our domestic economy as best we can is a priority and that is why the stimulus programme will be published, to outline a whole series of measures to make sure the economy can come back and recover in the context of a very severe pandemic. I am just back from the European Council meeting and have talked to other Ministers who have had far greater problems than we have had in terms of reopening and then having to lock down again. We are taking a very cautious approach and that is why we delayed phase 4. Understandably, we took some heat from people in rural Ireland when the pubs in particular were not opened but we did it because we felt it was the right thing to do in respect of public health.

We have never banned travel as a country since the beginning of this pandemic. However, if we look at the figures, travel has reduced dramatically compared to where we would have been last year. The Government will be meeting to decide on this issue. We actually postponed this idea of the green list of countries at the same or a lower level of the incidence of the virus than us. That was to come in some weeks ago but we postponed it in a cautious approach. We will take a cautious approach in that regard. We have made masks mandatory on public transport. We are now going to follow through on the advice from NPHET that we make masks mandatory in retail and other environments like that because it is important. This is an evolving virus.

The big question for all of us is how we live with Covid-19 for the foreseeable future. We have really tough issues, not just the Government but all of us as a society. We must try to maintain a level of economic activity that sustains employment, companies and jobs and gives them a fighting chance to emerge intact from Covid in 12 or 15 months' time. It is very challenging. That is why at 6 o'clock this morning we witnessed an unprecedented decision by Europe collectively to make €1.8 trillion available to try to recover and to provide the capacity to engineer a European economic recovery.

No one is certain that that will happen. The most effective way of keeping the economy going is to keep the transmission rate of the virus very low indeed and that is the objective of the Government.

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