Garret Ahearn (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I echo Senator Lombard's call for planning laws to deal with An Taisce. The decisions it has made or the lack of acceptance of court judgments are reprehensible in many ways. This has a real knock-on effect on farmers in my area in Tipperary. It is attacking farmers in one region and not farmers around the whole country, which is extremely unfair.

I want to talk about the arts and entertainment sector, and dance schools. Some months ago, people representing dance groups protested outside Leinster House asking for clarity on what they could do at the time. We eventually provided that, but only after they had come to Dublin to look for it. We are in a similar situation again with a lack of clarity for that sector. I call on the Leader to write to the Minister, Deputy Catherine Martin, to request clarity. Clonmel is due to host the Clonmel Arts Festival which is a big annual event. However, there is no clarity on how it will be hosted, whether it will be outdoor or indoor, etc. I ask for clarity.

A real game changer in the ability of the arts and entertainment sector to host events will be antigen testing. We have seen gigs around the world. Places like Barcelona have hosted gigs with 5,000 people, which went really well. If we are going to introduce guidelines for antigen testing in the coming days, we should also launch an awareness campaign on the usage of antigen testing. Anyone who has had a test for Covid-19 knows that it is a bit more complicated than one would think. It is not as simple as one would think. There is no point in doing a test incorrectly and assuming the result one has is the correct result. We need to educate people and provide the public with guidelines and a demonstration on how it should be done.