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

I am clear in how we are approaching this. I did not interrupt the Deputy. The bottom line is that two months ago, the Deputy was in favour of the living with Covid-19 document. He said it should not be torn up. A month later, he said it should be zero Covid. The Deputy is changing his mind every single month. I regret that because I want to work with him. I want to work with people. However, the bottom line is that we have to get the numbers down. The Deputy knows that. We must get hospital and intensive care numbers down. That is a clear metric. We must keep community transmission down. As for vaccination, that is important. Vaccination is working already in our hospital care settings. It is having a dramatic effect on reducing infection among front-line healthcare workers. We are one of the few countries which targeted that area in terms of the vaccination programme. It is working and is having a real impact. It will have an impact on older people and those who are most vulnerable. That is why we now have given a higher priority to adults with underlying conditions. Those who are most vulnerable to the disease will be vaccinated first and given protections.

Variants are an issue. We are bringing forward legislation in terms of mandatory quarantining, which will give the Minister the authority to add designated countries to the list, as recommended by the public health team. It must be grounded in public health grounds. The Bill will also have the capacity to facilitate the addition of further countries. The plan references antigen testing. Professor Mark Ferguson-----

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