Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is important after five months of this pandemic that we as policymakers pause and assess where we are in our response to the pandemic. We have seen the pandemic have a significant impact upon society, but as legislators we need to recognise that our response to it must be based upon accurate, factual information. If people are looking for accurate, factual information on the pandemic, I recommend they go to the State's Covid-19 data hub, which is available on the Ordnance Survey website, as it provides very detailed, factual, empirical information in respect of the pandemic and its impact on the country.

At the outset, I wish to set out some of the relevant factual statistics in respect to the pandemic as I think they must guide all of our decisions as policymakers when it comes to legislation or policy decisions. Since the pandemic arrived on these shores some five months ago, 25,802 people have been detected as having the Covid-19 virus. Of those 25,802 people, 1,753 people have died of or with Covid-19. That is a tragedy for all of those families. However, it may be the case that the number of deaths is too high because we know that when we look at the information about excess deaths in Ireland in the past five months it seems to suggest there is an excess death rate of approximately 1,200. Whether the figure is 1,753 or 1,200, a large number of people, unfortunately, have died as a result of this pandemic.

We also need to bring ourselves back to March and recall why we decided we were going to introduce such a stringent lockdown. The reason for it was that we saw what was happening in the intensive care units in Italy and Spain and in the hospitals of Italy and Spain, and we were legitimately concerned that when the pandemic came to Ireland we could find our intensive care units overwhelmed with people coming in with Covid-19 and we would be unable to provide them with the appropriate medical attention. That was an appalling prospect for any country to face, and it was for that reason we made the correct decision to go into the lockdown.

We need to record, however, and remember how many people have gone into intensive care units as a result of Covid-19. To date, over the past five months, 437 people have been admitted to intensive care units with Covid-19. That reached a heightened level of concern in April. On 11 April there were approximately 155 people in intensive care units in Ireland, which was a matter of real concern to us. What we need to be aware of, however, is that today, 22 July, we are in the fortunate position that only seven people in Ireland are in intensive care units with Covid-19. That is a very manageable figure, although it is obviously a very difficult time for those seven people, but it is a considerable reduction on where we were on 11 April.

We also need to assess where we are in terms of hospitalisation, because obviously a much greater number of people went into hospital with Covid-19 than went into intensive care units. To date, some 3,343 people in Ireland have been hospitalised with the Covid-19 virus. However, today, 22 July, we are in the fortunate position that only 13 people are in hospital with Covid-19. We have come from a situation where we had significant numbers of people in intensive care units in hospital to a situation where there are only seven people in intensive care units and 13 people in hospital with Covid-19. I wish all of them a speedy recovery. I know it is a very difficult time for them and their families, but it is important to state that if we can retain figures at that level, there will be no reason for us to consider having to go back into lockdown. I know people are concerned about the increasing number of cases that are being reported on a daily basis, but we need to be careful we do not become unnecessarily unnerved by those figures. It was always going to be the case that the figures were going to rise as a result of the loosening of the significant restrictions that we put in back in March.

We also need to look at the economic consequences and facts in respect to this matter. As I stated last week, unemployment is now 22.5% and youth unemployment is 45%. We need to ensure we have measures in place to deal with that. That is the reason I am supportive of this legislation, which I believe will be very helpful to small businesses in providing them with credit to ensure they can get their business operations up and running again.

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