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

To respond to Deputy Tóibín, I fully accept that one of the saddest parts of the global pandemic and the impact on society has been the inability of families to grieve, in the way we do in Ireland, their lost ones who have passed away. This has been a terrible loss to those bereaved. That so few can attend a funeral is a further traumatic blow to the families. They do their best in the circumstances to remember their loved ones.

The public health advice has been clear on this. I would say to the Deputy that it is not what happens within the church that is the problem, or attendance at the mass, it is what happened afterwards that has been a problem. There have been well-documented cases of significant spread of the disease at events after funerals in various locations throughout the country. The difficulty is always where does one draw the line. Believe me, I have exercised on this on quite a number of occasions. We took decisions to increase numbers before Christmas at the end of the November restrictions. It is very difficult. We will be guided by public health advice on this aspect.

The variant is something I feel people do not quite get all the time. The variant creates a different situation in terms of the spread of the disease right now in this phase. We need to keep this foremost in our minds. It is not like the second wave or the first wave. The B117 variant spreads much more rapidly than original iterations of the virus. This is what is informing a very conservative and cautious approach to what is allowed and what is not allowed and the restrictions that have been put in place. It still remains a concern. The number in hospital at present is 357 people. This is still higher than at the peak of the second wave. Likewise, the numbers in ICU are very high. If we let the guard down too quickly and this variant gets control again, it will spread very rapidly.

We did say we would engage. I made clear the challenges and difficulties. Today is 10 March. In the week leading into 5 April, we will review the situation. We will take advice from public health and we will then advise on what we believe is the best way forward for the following six weeks after that.

To respond to Deputies Boyd Barrett and McDonald, these meetings were not about any issue other than the Covid-19 restrictions. All of the meetings I have had were in this context. We have written to the religious orders saying they should make a contribution to any redress scheme developed by the Government, which we hope to have ready, or the work of the interdepartmental committee ready, at the end of April. The information and tracing Bill will be published by the Minister and he is making solid progress on what will be comprehensive legislation in terms of access to one's identity and information.

As for hospitals, I am of the view that hospitals which are predominantly or overwhelmingly funded by the State should be in State ownership. That is my view. The State now essentially supports these hospitals in all manner and means through current and capital funding. In respect of the Sisters of Charity, again that should not be happening. I would have thought that whatever arrangements were being made that elderly blind women would be looked after and protected because that would be the Christian thing to do. I will have to come back to the Deputy on that. With regard to the National Maternity Hospital, my view is the ownership, control and ethos of it has to be informed by State and Government policy.

In respect of Boris Johnson, I did not get advance notice from him in respect of the decision on the extension of the dates pertaining to the protocol, but the following day we got some indication that this was afoot. It is a silly approach to dealing with the issue and it is wrong. Unilateral approaches do not work. We have been making these points repeatedly to the UK side. An approach is being adopted that I do not think is beneficial in the long term with regard to constructive UK-EU relationships.

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