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

I thank the Deputy. The Cabinet sub-committee on Covid will meet this afternoon and it will be an opportunity for us to receive an update from the Minister for Health and our public health team and consider a draft of our new plan to live with Covid over the course of the next six to nine months.

In many ways, the first chapter of dealing with this pandemic was about locking down the country, flattening the curve, saving lives, making sure we had time to build up capacity around testing and tracing to prepare our ICUs for what we thought might be a surge in demand, purchasing ventilators and personal protective equipment, PPE, learning how to shield the vulnerable and teaching the public how to protect themselves. We were largely successful in that first chapter.

This new plan is all about the second chapter, which we all know by now is a lot more difficult. It is about suppressing the virus as much as possible while at the same time keeping the country open, including our schools, childcare, regular health services, cancer screening and businesses and employment.

In response to the Deputy's question, I agree that the plan, which will be refined over the course of the next week, will need to have regard to the needs of older people. We need to make sure they are protected and shielded, but we also need to make sure that they are not socially isolated. I know how many older people feel they were socially isolated in the period in which they were asked to cocoon during the first stage of this pandemic, although I have no doubt that saved many lives and reduced morbidity.

Similarly, when it comes to people with disabilities, many of whom also have underlying physical health conditions, we need to make sure they are protected but also that they get the services they need. It is one thing to lose these services for a few weeks or months, but we cannot have a situation whereby people with disabilities get no services for the best part of a year.

The issue of travel and tourism is different. Obviously, there needs to be an economic response to support those sectors. As Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, I am working to see what we can do in the budget for those particular sectors that are still closed by mandate or are effectively closed as a consequence of the pandemic. While most businesses have been allowed to reopen, including pubs in the next couple of weeks, some sectors are still effectively or mandatorily closed by Government. That includes the live events and commercial art sector, representatives of which I met yesterday. It also includes travel agents, who were out on the streets yesterday.

We appreciate that the sectors which are effectively still closed will need additional help over and above what is being provided to businesses that are at least allowed to open and have a chance to trade. As Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, that is something I will be working on with the Ministers for Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputies Paschal Donohoe and Michael McGrath, between now and budget day.

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