Timmy Dooley (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

As every day of the level 5 lockdown goes by, more and more issues arise that are clearly not consistent with what is being attempted to suppress the virus. Many of them attach to rural pursuits. It is difficult to justify why a small number of cattle buyers cannot attend cattle marts to assist in the trade of livestock, which is part of the food chain. Rural men and women who are interested in hunting normally take their guns and dogs to shoot pheasants at this time of the year, mainly alone or sometimes with one or two others, in the wild countryside. There are also issues with hare coursing. Again, it is usually a couple of men or women and their dogs. These are not just sporting pursuits. For some, the breeding of a dog is an important source of income. It often goes on to pay for the college fees of a son or daughter. It is an essential component of the income of those families, yet with the wave of a hand or the stroke of a pen, certain people in government and in the National Public Health Emergency Team, NPHET, seem to suggest it is better to suppress everything for the greater good of all.

When that kind of blanket approach is taken, however, very quickly people start to be lost, group by group, individual by individual, club by club. It will become more and more difficult as time goes on to get the support of the people. We need to learn to live with Covid-19. I have talked in the House about the necessity to give some sense of hope to people who will want to come home for Christmas. We need to do that now. We need a debate in the House on living with Covid. If one talks to the experts off the record, they will say very clearly that even with the emergence of a vaccine or some therapeutic cure for Covid, we will still have to live with it for many years to come. We need to get real now while we still have some chance of retaining the support of the people. I suggest we have a debate in the House as soon as possible.