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

This is not in the context of special categories, it is in the context of ending social isolation.

On workers in vulnerable situations, we have dealt with that. We have communicated with those workers on the ground. There is the pandemic illness payment and we have made it very clear to them that they will not lose out on income if they come forward with symptoms, are tested, etc. That happened way back in the summer. As the Deputy knows, there has been a serial testing programme under way in meat plants for quite a long time. The positivity rate is very low and, as I have said many times in the House, that is the evidence from that.

I was not having a go at Sinn Féin when I mentioned the all-Ireland aspect in answering Deputy Shortall, because she wrote to me about the all-Ireland response. Everybody in the House has mentioned it, everybody outside the House mentions it and I just said that I need to put on the record of the House that it is easier said than done. Many people are responsible in the context of that and there are issues in the North that are different and have to be accepted.

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