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

I put it to the Deputy that he cannot have it both ways. His party took the correct approach from the outset of the pandemic. I agreed with his party leader, Deputy Shortall, who said, at the time, that we must be guided by public health advice, no matter what, because if we jettison that, we will end up with a very inappropriate and wrong response to the pandemic. If we look at countries around the world that jettisoned public health advice, we can see where they ended up in terms of mortality rates and the disasters that followed. We may have our tensions, people may give out, and there is a need for robust debate. I understand all of that. However, suffice it to say, we have been guided by very good public health advice from the HSE in respect of schools and we will adjust and change as appropriate. There will be an antigen programme for schools in a selected and targeted way.

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