Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

On balance, our nation has responded well to the pandemic. We owe our relative success to our front-line workers and the Irish people. I recognise the leadership and decision making - initially of the caretaker Government and then the new Government - that sought to protect the vulnerable primarily and assist the economy by means of many expensive but worthwhile interventions in a wide and varied number of sectors and services, be they business, cultural, sporting or community-based. We have become more accustomed to the basic defences against the virus, for example, good personal hygiene habits and etiquette, while commerce has improved its offerings with home working and online trading, to name but a few measures.

Many sectors have been trusted previously and we are led to believe they will be trusted again. These include hairdressers, barbers, non-essential services or retail offerings and so forth. They and their customers can and will live and trade, not in spite or fear of Covid, but with it. They will do this because they have to, and doing so is essential if they and we are to have a future.

We need to consider extending that trust, loyalty and understanding to other sectors that are willing to reciprocate by showing that they, too, can live and trade with Covid. Leadership is about affording trust and earning loyalty, through compromise if necessary. The trust afforded to children, staff and management in schools has been repaid by the bucketful. It has been the shining light in this dark pandemic, together with our far greater appreciation of our families, surroundings and communities.

The success of schools was based on consultation and planning. I would ask for, or even demand at this stage, an assurance that the Government is considering the possibilities that would allow the hospitality sector to reopen and discussing those not at, to or for the sector, but with it in order to agree new guidelines or, if necessary, new laws. The sector, its staff and their families want and expect a meaningful Christmas, too. By agreeing these protocols, the Government would give society a far greater ownership of the solutions. We will need the hospitality sector when we seek to repay the billions of euro that, thankfully, we have been able to dish out in recent months. Shut the sector out now and we shut out a large slice of the cake needed to repay that money. People in the sector know, understand and appreciate what the consequences will be for those who do not adhere to the guidelines and relevant laws - closure. That is justice in a democracy during a pandemic to which we have grown accustomed. If someone breaks the law, he or she suffers the consequences. God knows, I should know that.

If we are to have a meaningful Christmas that all of society can share and own, let us ensure that it ticks every box so that society buys into it, the economy is able for it , we have the spiritual and mental well-being to appreciate the offerings available to us, and can relish the opportunities presented by Christmas even at this dark time.

See this speech in context