Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate the Leas-Cheann Comhairle and the Minister, Deputy McEntee, on their accession to their respective offices. I wish them both well. I also congratulate the Ministers whose appointments were announced today and wish them well.

This debate is timely. As a representative for County Kildare, I have first-hand experience of a lockdown that was confined to a specific area. Everybody says it was successful, which it was, and I hope that it was equally successful throughout the country in terms of setting out standards and guidelines. However, there is no doubt that this period was difficult and that it impacted very severely on the county in general. It was also divisive and caused finger pointing and accusations at a local level. We need to avoid something similar happening, if at all possible, in the time ahead.

We all recognise, as I have stated many times, that if we observe best practice and regulations exactly as they are, we will limit the extent to which the virus can progress. We are not going to stop it, nor was it ever possible to do so unless we had locked down the country, including the ports and airports. Comparisons with New Zealand, Australia and other countries of similar sparse populations are not really valid at all. The fact is that even those countries met with difficulties in maintaining a clear deck, as it were, after their initial success.

It is important to note that the problem of infection outbreaks in meat and other food processing plants did not originate in County Kildare. In fact, before the recent incidents, there had been no such outbreaks in the county. There have been 26 outbreaks in meat processing plants throughout the country as well as outbreaks in other areas not associated at all with meat processing or food production. Unless we close down supermarkets and a whole lot of other food vending operations throughout the country, we will not achieve anything very effective.

Like many other speakers, I believe the time has come to look at reopening the pubs that have not been allowed to open thus far. No purpose is being served at all in keeping them closed. Unfortunately, their continued closure is forcing members of the public, who have few or no social outlets, to seek alternatives. That is not in the interest of the curtailment of the virus or the interest of public health in general. As we know, for instance, house parties have continued. My view is that alongside this legislation, we should immediately move to allow publicans who are prepared to apply social distancing and ensure best practice prevails within their premises to reopen automatically. In fact, we should encourage them to do so forthwith, because further delays will only send out a message that is not helpful. I stress that this should apply only to those who undertake to apply social distancing and implement sanitisation and other best practice. It is ironic that pubs are being blamed for creating situations where the disease can be transmitted when most of them remain closed. Unfortunately, once we enact divisions and apply two different standards, it creates a suspicion in the public mind that all is not well.

I ask the Minister to use her judgment in the application of this legislation to allow those pubs that have not been allowed to open thus far to do so under best practice rules and guidelines and thereby increase the number of social outlets for the public. Members of the public have made many sacrifices over the past six months. Front-line workers have made many sacrifices. Many families have been bereaved. Those sacrifices were made and those prices were paid and people will continue to be called upon to make sacrifices. In my opinion, having looked at the situation at both a local and national level, the best way forward is to use this legislation as a means of enabling and ensuring that publicans who are willing to comply with the law have an opportunity to do so.

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