Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

On Deputy Tóibín's questions, look, I was there in government both as Taoiseach and Tánaiste for that very dark period which was the pandemic. These were very difficult decisions to make. Everyone can be an expert in hindsight. We can only make decisions based on the information available and the advice that was put to us by experts. I have no doubt that the lockdowns saved lives. I am absolutely certain that the vaccine programme saved a lot of lives. We see that from the most recent OECD report, which shows that Ireland is one of only a handful of countries in which there were no excess deaths during that period, with only New Zealand, Iceland and Norway outperforming us. Of course the lockdowns had negative effects. I was among many people in government who were very clear about my concerns about the negative effects of lockdowns, not just on people's jobs and businesses but also delayed and deferred diagnoses, which the Deputy raised, which did happen. In housing construction we lost thousands of houses because of the housing construction lockdown.

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