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

Christmas mass will of course be said.

Deputy Lowry asked if we are always rethinking and varying our strategy. We are. Anyone who speaks with absolute certainty about the coronavirus is probably bluffing. We have learned a lot about this virus, and we have a lot yet to learn about it. We have learned a lot about how to handle a pandemic, and we have a lot yet to learn about it. We are always rethinking and varying our strategy as facts change and as new evidence becomes available.

Bed capacity is always a concern. It is an issue but in many ways the position in this regard has been overstated in recent weeks. Since the start of the year we have added 800 beds to the hospital system, 400 acute and 400 sub-acute and 30 additional ICU beds, with more to come. As things stand, there are approximately 300 or so patients in hospital with Covid. They are occupying that number of hospital beds out of a total of 11,000. There are approximately 35 patients in ICU with Covid and they are occupying that number of ICU beds out of a total of approximately 280. It is only when the total number of people in ICU goes over 280 that the ICU system goes from green to amber, let alone red.

A rough measure of overcrowding in hospitals is the number of patients on trolleys. Today, it is 133 and many of those people are on trolleys because they need to be isolated, not because a bed is not available. That is down 65% on this time last year and 66% on the previous year. In fact, the number of patients on trolleys and the level of overcrowding in hospitals is probably at an all-time low. Indicative of this is the fact that the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, INMO, still produces a daily count but no longer produces a monthly count. That is because these are the months with the lowest numbers on record in terms of overcrowding. That may not come across sometimes in the debate about this matter.

The CRSS is being run by the Revenue Commissioners and will open to applications this week, if not next week, and will apply any time we are at level 3 or above. It will kick in retrospectively from the budget date for that reason. The way it works is that any company whose premises is closed as a result of a Government order can claim a weekly grant based on its previous turnover. This will amount to 10% of €1 million in the first year and 5% on the second million. I can perhaps go into more detail during the follow-up response.

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