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

As to the upskilling and recruitment of people, we will continue to work on that.

Deputy Paul Murphy stated that it is only a question of whether we use the word “gamble” or the word “choice”. There is a fundamental difference between taking a gamble and making a choice. I say emphatically that I do not gamble with peoples’ lives. I do not gamble with peoples’ health. I want to make that point and refute any implication or innuendo to the contrary.

The mandatory hotel quarantining that we introduced has worked in protecting public health. I think the positivity figure is 2.7% for those who have come through mandatory hotel quarantine. There is also a balance to be struck. There are choices and balances to be made. The vast majority of Deputies have been criticising the Government in the past two or three weeks because of the impact on aviation and the impact Covid has had on travel. Opposition Deputies have asserted that there is a Government policy on the situation of aviation. People cannot have it both ways. There is a balance to be struck also in making sure we have some semblance of an aviation sector when Covid is over and we emerge from it. I want to put that out there. It is something we must consider. We have funded and provided relief resources to airlines and airports. Notwithstanding that, the pandemic is having an impact throughout Europe and here as well. As a small open society, we depend a great deal on international connectivity. That said, we have acted in accordance with the advice so far. The advice we have received as to the decisions we have taken for June and July is that those measures are low to medium risk. That is the advice we have received.

As to the figures so far, we have been improving consistently since May in managing the impact and spread of the virus.

That said, we are very mindful of the dangers of the Delta variant and will not be slow to act.

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