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

I just think work came back. We know from the returns in revenue that the economy has picked up very significantly throughout the summer. Thousands of people got back to work, which is a good thing. It is where people want to be. The changes we have made in the past week, in essence, bring the hours back to midnight. It is not ending any particular sector. Prior to this, intervention economically was when we moved from level 3 to level 5 or where, in effect, a sector was closed down or rendered completely inoperable. Those were the triggers and there were other triggers in respect of the employment wage subsidy scheme, EWSS, and the Covid restrictions support scheme, CRSS, in terms of the closure of a premises, for example.

We are now in a different phase of the pandemic. The measures we adopted at the very start in terms of restrictions and all of that were necessitated by what we knew then about the virus, the level of vaccination and so on. Now we are in a fourth wave. It is a very transmissible variant. Right across Europe, there are very considerable concerns. People have adapted here and that adaptation in terms of reduced socialising is having an impact on certain sectors. I acknowledge that. The challenge for us will be to develop more bespoke models in terms of the broad-brush approach we have used in earlier phases of the pandemic. That is the approach we intend to take. We will assess the impact of the measures on specific sectors, including the areas the Deputy identified. We have brought it back to midnight but I would not call it a curfew. In Holland, I think it is at 7 o'clock or 8 o'clock at night that all activity stops. However, what we have done does have an impact. I do not disagree with the Deputy on that.

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