John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted to have the opportunity to speak. Any time I have made a contribution, I am reminded that our only precedent for this is Spanish flu. There was a third surge of the Spanish flu in March and April and it will be hard for the country to avoid that in this instance, despite people's best efforts. We need to be mindful of it. The Taoiseach was right in his determination to prioritise the reopening of schools. He and the Minister for Education often do not get the credit for that. Deputy Shortall mentioned the need for ventilation. I have visited a number of schools in my constituency and they are probably the most ventilated buildings in the country.

As I stated at our parliamentary party meeting some time ago, if schools were allowed to close on 18 December, since children circulate en masse in these school communities anyway, it would provide families with the opportunity to isolate for a period of up to a week or in excess of a week, with Christmas coming, and perhaps facilitate the opportunity to socialise with grandparents. Please bear that in mind, along with the fact that school communities are exhausted. I will focus on the level of stress involved in managing that environment. For anyone who might be watching this later, I cannot talk about other areas because of the limited time. School communities are at the point of exhaustion. Entire school communities worked right through the summer to get schools open. They put in a phenomenal effort. I have seen that first hand. The Minister has brought a degree of consistency and stability. He achieved in excess of 100,000 tests and his message in recent months has been consistent, which has been helpful.

We cannot forget those people who I describe as our brothers and sisters. I refer to those in the hospitality, travel, event management and transport sectors. We are asking them, in the lead-up to Christmas, to survive on Covid payments and one double payment. That must inform everything the Minister says. Wet pubs have not opened since March and pubs that serve food have not opened since September. We have had a surge in that time and the pubs are not responsible for it. I am not an advocate for publicans but I am looking at the potential for another surge. The choice that the Government has to make is whether it allows for people to socialise in a manner that is capable of being policed, observed and regulated or if it, through rules and regulations, drives socialisation and socialising underground into an unregulated, completely unpoliceable environment. If the latter happens, it will lead to a surge over Christmas. That is one of the biggest challenges the Government faces.

When we use the term "younger people", it clearly comes from those of us who are older.

I pay tribute to that generation who had least to lose from a health perspective from the virus and who made awe-inspiring sacrifices to protect their parents and grandparents, our health workers and all those on the front line and those who are vulnerable. They kept our shelves stacked throughout the period. When we finally see this virus in the rear-view mirror the will be some of the unsung heroes of this period.

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