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

There will be a meeting of the Cabinet sub-committee on Covid today and a Cabinet meeting tomorrow. After that, we will be able to make a decision on what can and cannot reopen in December. No decisions have yet been made about restaurants, pubs or hotels at this stage. Whatever happens, we will make sure financial supports like the employment wage subsidy scheme and the Covid restrictions support scheme, CRSS, remain in place for businesses that cannot open. As Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, I will make sure that happens. I understand the argument that a pub is a controlled environment and that people are less likely to interact there than they would at a house party or a home gathering, and I am sympathetic to it. However, we need to bear in mind that just because people can gather in a pub, it does not mean that an equal number of home gatherings will not happen. In fact, it is very possible that, having spent a few hours or a night in the pub, people will then retire to somebody's house and have a house party there. It is not necessarily true that if we open the pubs there will be fewer house parties. We might end up with the same number or even more and therefore increase risk.

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