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

Out of respect to both Deputies, I will reply separately to the two queries. The plan at the moment is not to ease any restrictions and that means that masses can only happen online, as is the case currently. Obviously, 25 people can attend a funeral mass or a wedding but not a regular mass. The Taoiseach met with the four Catholic archbishops to discuss this issue. We hope to be in a position in early December to allow masses to resume again but like any gathering, unfortunately, there is a risk and even if people are socially distanced within a church there is everything that happens around it as well in terms of entry and exit, the car park and people taking the bus. All of these things increase the risk of the virus spreading and that is why the rules apply. December is not too far away and I hope it will be possible to allow masses to resume in person from 1 December.

On Deputy Bruton's comments, I very much agree that it would be useful for this House to have an open debate on what the restrictions should look like from 1 December in order that each of us can bring his or her wisdom to the table. Of course we will listen to advice from NPHET and the Government will have its own views too. It will be useful for us to hear as well the views of the 160 Members of this House on how that period in December might look, because we all want the restrictions to be eased as much as possible, but we also know that the more they are eased the higher the risk that we end up having a spike again and, potentially, a third wave. There are many choices to be made and a lot of difficult trade-offs. It would be helpful for us to hear the views of the House in that regard.

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