Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Taoiseach for his reply. To be clear, I am not advocating that we change anything. I, too, acknowledge that the people of this country have made a huge sacrifice, and continue to do so, and that all the restrictions that are there are necessary. I would also say that what we saw at the weekend, with crowds gathering, is unacceptable and is flying in the face of what the majority of people are trying to do. My concern, and the concern of publicans, is not so much that they want to be open for business but that they want to know, if they are going to open, how they will manage it safely. The engagement with them is very important.

As the Taoiseach says, Covid transmission will thrive where we have people congregating. The fear I have is that if we do not have some sort of social outlet, in a licensed and safe way, over the Christmas period, we will have unofficial, unsafe and uncontrolled gatherings like we saw last weekend. That is a difficulty and I know it is not easy to make any decision. I repeat that I am not asking the Taoiseach to reopen the pubs but just to engage with publicans.

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