Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I signed the regulations last night and I assure Deputies that it is a non-penal provision and it will remain thus.

Golf has been mentioned many times. Some people have been suggesting that tennis was allowed. It is not. Tennis Ireland has withdrawn the comment it made. Essentially, no sports are getting an exemption. The exemption is for elite and professional sports, for reasons we all understand. They are professional or semi-professional and operate in controlled, safe environments. Some people want golf to be an exemption, while others argue that tennis, athletics, gyms or personal training in gyms and so forth should be exempt. We cannot be in the business of saying that a wide variety of sports are all banned except this or that one. That is simply not credible and does not correspond to the public health advice we have. Most sports could make a reasonable argument - many are doing so - that their sport is different and that while it is okay to ban all other sports, their particular sport is okay because it is safe, unique and different. I hope Deputies appreciate that we simply cannot go down that route. If we do, where do we stop? That is the public health advice we have on sports. I pushed hard for training for school-age children to be included on a non-contact basis in pods of 15 for mental and physical health reasons and because it lines up with keeping the schools open. That is the exemption.

There has been much talk about a particular nursing home. I have considerable detail on the nursing home in question. Deputies will appreciate that I cannot go into great detail on any specific nursing home because it would not be right or proper. Deputy Tóibín made a variety of statements that were absolutely and fundamentally untrue and very unfair on the work of the HSE. He said no supports had been provided. Let me be clear. These cases were detected through testing done by the HSE. Infection prevention control teams were deployed. Staff have been deployed. Serial testing is ongoing. All staff and residents were tested. There are senior management staff on-site right now as we speak. Significant financial supports are given to all nursing homes. Significant amounts of personal protective equipment are being supplied. The HSE is doing everything it can to protect nursing homes. The comments made here this morning are factually incorrect. They spread fear and anxiety in the community, which is wrong.

I have great time for Deputy McGrath personally but I have rarely in my life heard such a shambolic contribution. He talked about Hitler, fake numbers, fake news and even fake tests. He said the polymerase chain reaction tests do not work. I will leave it at that. It was very disappointing to hear his contribution.

Reference was made to insufficient time. I have been here the whole time. I am offering all colleagues time to debate this afterwards. The timeframe was a decision of the Business Committee.

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