Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

He is, and we as a Government will be fully accountable to this Dáil. Included in that, we will make sure there is full access to NPHET, not just to the analysis but also to the individuals behind the analysis that was presented to us last night, so that Members can have an opportunity to ask the questions or test out what is a very worrying development and situation around this new Delta variant.

Let us be very clear. Let us not pre-empt the approach that is going to be taken. The Government is not responding to the modelling information presented last night by immediately jumping to a particular solution. We are saying that we want sit down with our stakeholders, with the unions and with the industry to look at options to provide better protection and to reopen the hospitality sector and other sectors that may be affected.

For young people, the decisions yesterday in terms of changing the vaccination rules was an important element in the mix. It was not all negative in terms of what was presented and what it may provide, subject to international vaccine supply coming in.

The Deputy depicts it all as having been decided. This latest modelling information was presented to us only last night. The appropriate approach was not to jump to a conclusion or to offer a solution immediately. It was to say that we now need to establish a plan that gives us a further, certain path to a reopening that will not see reopening and then closing again. This is what we as a people have done successfully in recent months: we have managed to reopen sections of our society, stage by stage, in a way that did not have to be reversed. That is the first thing our young people want, whether they are working in an establishment, are patrons of an establishment, are part of a family business, or are part of cultural, sporting or other events that could also be affected.

There is no discrimination behind the Government's intent, but we did have to listen to the analysis presented by the health officials. I could go back a number of months right through this crisis where Deputy Kelly's party was saying, in the most categoric terms, that we had to heed the public information advice. In Government, one does have to heed this. A range of modelling scenarios was presented to us. It is not all potentially unmanageable. It will be manageable. As a country we are good at managing this and we will do this. The way to do it is not to close your eyes, block your ears and say that none of the modelling exists. The way to do it is to consider the options, which we will do in the coming days.

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