Timmy Dooley (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

As we face into the Christmas period, it is appropriate that we would have a discussion on living with Covid-19. There has been a very genuine effort in the last weeks by most people in Ireland to try to suppress the virus after it appeared to be spiralling out of control. It is too early to predict what the incidence rate will be in December but it is absolutely necessary that the Government sets in train a strategy for managing the Covid-19 response during the Christmas period.

I have been contacted by a large number of elderly people who have sons, daughters and grandchildren dotted around the world. They want to see their loved ones return home for Christmas. They are going the hard yards now and have done the hard yards over the past months to play their part in the suppression of the virus. If I was in any doubt about the sincerity of their concerns, a number of them have put it to me and made it very clear that they have done the work. One elderly woman asked me "What is the purpose of me living anymore and what effort is being made to protect me and my life unless there is something at the end?" For her the obvious end right now is to see her son, her daughter-in-law and their young child return home for Christmas. This is not something that can be decided on Christmas Eve or in the middle of December. People have to make plans, book flights and make preparations. The Government needs to set out, without delay, a clear plan and a strategy that gives some certainty for what is a really important juncture in people's lives.