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

First of all, Deputy, I have to state that there are 464 people in hospital this morning. There are 74 in intensive care. My central objective and that of the Government is to protect lives and protect people's health. That has to be central to our consideration above and beyond anything. This is not giving out to anybody or criticising anybody, but it has to be central and it has to inform our approach.

Since the spring time, we have comprehensively, gradually and cautiously reopened society, with significant benefits. Thousands of people are back at work, less than 100,000 compared to 400,000 are now on the pandemic unemployment payment, PUP, consumer spending is surging and the economy is enjoying growth periods because of that cautious reopening. What is critical is that, as we reopen further in the context of a deteriorating situation in relation to the prevalence of the disease and its penetration into hospitals, we do so in a cautious way. That is the central message of yesterday. As I said yesterday, there will be sectoral guidance issued to different sectors, but what is extremely important is that it is ring-fenced for live entertainment and it does not spread right across the hospitality sector. That is very important, because otherwise that would have inherent dangers in terms of the spread of the disease. This is not simple and there are challenges, but we will work and we will get them resolved.

I recall the rows in the convention centre when we brought in the digital Covid certificate. One would have imagined at the time that we had abandoned everything - civil liberties and the whole lot of it - with parties attacking us left, right and centre for bringing in the digital Covid certificate, and now it is accepted as a key protective measure to enable not just the reopening of hospitality, but keeping it reopened.

Regarding the decisions yesterday, it was last Wednesday that the Government was alerted to the deteriorating situation. There was a meeting with senior officials and NPHET wanted a number of days more to see the pattern in terms of case numbers and so forth. Hence, there was a meeting of NPHET on Monday and the Government meeting on Tuesday. Government leaders considered NPHET's advice late Monday evening. I accept that the night time economy sector has not got great notice in relation to this, but that is because of how things have evolved.

The Deputy used a good phrase: "It is not natural". Covid is not natural, and that is the problem. Covid is not natural, there are many twists and turns with it and it can upset the best-laid plans. We thought two weeks ago that we would be opening without restrictions. That has changed. What we now must do is try to protect things.

In respect of antigen testing, to be fair to the Deputy, he was consistent in raising that issue. He knows, as we all do, that there have been different perspectives on it among public health experts and so on, but we are now ruling on it. The Deputy referred to NIAC and the Government. Let us be clear - the clinical advice is there, unless the Deputy is suggesting that we now override the national immunisation advisory committee.

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