Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

There are so many different types of dance. One is also drawing children from different communities and backgrounds to the one centre, so one is potentially facilitating the spread of the virus. As I stated in my address on Friday, we are prepared to go so far but no further.

Unfortunately, quite a number of groups were left out in the modifications to level 3. The objective was to try to limit the spread of the virus and that was our motivation.

There is a limit of 15 people meeting outdoors, which is to prevent congregation. We have already seen with the takeaway phenomenon that unacceptable practices were building up in the cities, to be frank, and this was becoming a scene in itself. We were seeing significant outdoor congregation, which is not good if we are looking to stop the spread of the virus. The policing of it is difficult if there are three pubs in a row on a street, for example, with potentially three blocks of 15 people. It would be very difficult for gardaí to police it. Gardaí have said to us that level 3 is more difficult to police than level 5 as there are more grey areas than at the higher level, which leads to a challenge. I am not blaming the Garda for any of this and it is a decision we took but it is an important insight. When we open up, we allow more activities, creating a more difficult scenario all around, whereas level 5, because of its crude and blunt nature, can be much clearer.

On 6 January, we will assess the position, and we will assess it on an ongoing basis with respect to numbers of cases, hospitalisations, people in ICU beds and so on, which will tell us where the virus is at. As I said before, level 5 was different from the first lockdown in that we kept schools, the construction sector and non-healthcare services open. Any new restrictions that may emerge in the new year could be different as well. It does not mean all sectors will fall victim, to use the term, of a new set of restrictions.

Deputy McDonald raised her correspondence with Sophie Redmond. I pay tribute to Sophie Redmond and her courage. It is very difficult not to have a clear timeline for an urgent operation. I will certainly inquire of the Minister for Health, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, to see what we can do in Sophie's case. Covid-19 has made an impact on the capacity of our children's hospitals to do surgery. On top of that are the delays that had been improving, although they had not met four-month targets. I will engage with the hospitals to see what can be done to accelerate the surgery. Every effort must be made to facilitate children like Sophie, who need their surgery, to get it when they need it.

With scoliosis it is a matter of skilled personnel being available and the right people doing the surgery. It is an important consideration. There are other complications arising from a requirement for knee surgery. I will certainly check that out for Sophie if the Deputy sends the details to me. We will certainly do everything we possibly can to help her and her family.

Deputy Boyd Barrett spoke about education and fees in general. I take his point on postgraduate courses but that specific route was created some years back, over a decade ago, and at the time it was considered radical in itself to create new entry routes into medicine. It had been fairly difficult to access but this route has an additional cost element. I will ask the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science to review the matter but one of the biggest matters overall with third level is access to finance. The Cassells report has been published and we have frozen fee levels at the current undergraduate level for quite some time. Postgraduate fees have gone up a little too much and we gave additional supports in the budget for postgraduates, particularly those facilitated with grants and so on.

It may be better to deal with the area by giving greater supports to students via income thresholds as those who need it most should get greater supports going through college. This is in preference to, for example, an abolition of fee structures. I would prefer to support the colleges in the first instance and try to give additional core funding to colleges, as they need it to provide quality education. We should give further supports for inclusion in third level education, especially around people with disabilities and who are disadvantaged. We provided additional funding in the budget this year for both those categories. We should also provide funding in the broader SUSI grant structure for students for whom education is too much of a financial burden.

That said, participation rates in Irish third level education are probably the highest in Europe, particularly over the past 20 years from the late 1990s onwards. I was involved in that process as a Minister with responsibility for education. We dramatically expanded third level education and created far more places. We now need to continue to resource it as it is key to economic development in the country. I will ask the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science to examine the medical graduate entry programme.

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