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

People have good reason to be afraid. This pandemic is real. There are 3,000 families across the country who have lost loved ones and are still grieving for them. Had it not been for the actions that people took individually and as a community, as well as the actions that Government took, we would be experiencing much higher levels of mortality and sickness than we have now. At least until we have a critical mass of the population vaccinated and we develop new treatments, there are reasons for people to be afraid.

We have increased ICU capacity. As the Deputy knows, ICU is not just about a bed but is a whole system of care. We have the beds and we have the kits but training up the staff has to be done over a period of years. We have increased ICU capacity and are using that surge capacity at the moment. It is encouraging that the number of patients in hospital is now falling. It peaked at around 2,000 and is at around 1,700 now and we will see that reflected in the ICU numbers in the coming days.

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