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

I thank the Deputy for her questions and the points she has raised. I accept that a debate on public health should transcend party politics and politics in general. I said at the weekend that it is important to communicate in different ways on different platforms to different age cohorts, ethnic minorities and migrant workers. We worked on the issue of employment in meat plants and people in direct provision over the summer in terms of language, messaging and communication in respect of sick pay being available to people in direct provision, for example, if they were positive for coronavirus and required to self-isolate. I take those points.

On her point about cross-party messaging, members of all parties in Dublin were briefed after the announcement of the restrictions. I will go further and organise a briefing with party leaders. The health spokespersons of different parties were also looking for a briefing. Last Thursday and Friday were hectic days for members of NPHET and for the acting Chief Medical Officer, CMO, and all involved but they stayed late on Friday evening to brief Dublin representatives.

The Deputy is correct about compliance rates. We want people to comply with the guidance. An enormous collective effort is required to get these numbers down significantly. It is within our capacity, as a people, to do that by reducing our social contacts, avoiding unnecessary congregations and wearing masks where possible. We can make an impact on the numbers by doing that.

On the point that the Deputy made about strategy, by instinct I do not believe in the herd immunity approach. Those who advocated for it early on did not fully realise the impact of this virus on people's health. It seems that the virus can be damaging to some people's lungs and health over the medium term even if they survive. It can have longer term health implications for some people and we do not know enough about how deadly this virus is to go along with the idea of a herd immunity approach because it carries enormous risks.

The strategy of elimination has not quite worked where it has been tried. It has been effective in New Zealand but its geographic location is different to ours. We are in a different situation geographically. We must also accept that the economic and social implications of an elimination strategy would be significant and severe on workers and society.

I think that the strategy to suppress the virus that we are pursuing now is the correct one. That said, I am not an expert on public health. I recall the Deputy saying, as I said, at the outbreak of the virus that we should adhere as much as possible to public health advice. Our public health advice at the moment is to endeavour to stabilise and suppress the spread of the virus while maintaining a quality of life, having as many people working as possible, with our schools open and health services resumed to the greatest extent possible.

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