Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Last Monday, rural publicans were allowed to open their doors for the first time in six months. It is good to see the doors open and a bit of life in rural villages such as Gneeveguilla, Brosna, Sneem and Fieries which were totally desolated and dead for six months. I am getting very worried, however, because the first question people are asked when contacted by the contact tracers is whether they have been in a pub or restaurant in the past two weeks.

Surely there are other questions and other places they should be asking about as well. I wonder whether the same attention is being given to people who travel abroad and come back. We recognise their right and need to do that. Is there the same follow-up on quarantine when they come back from countries that are not on the green list? Why is all the focus directed on the pubs again? Is the Government going to close them again?

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