I thank the Deputy. If he is fair to us and looks at all the major actions that have been taken by the Government to date, he will find they have been taken in order to bail out people and workers. There has been a massive expansion of the welfare budget in the past couple of weeks in order to provide the pandemic unemployment payment of €350 per week. If one compares that to the payment in the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland, where it is less than £100 per week, or to what is happening in other countries, that…

The Government has not taken a formal position on the matter of vouchers or refunds. There may be something at Department level. I will have to check, but, even so, I doubt that any law could be changed retrospectively. I may be wrong about that but I have never come across anyone changing a consumer protection law retrospectively. It might be changed prospectively but I do not see how it could be changed retrospectively. I will get a briefing on that issue but there is no Government decision on it. Objectively, th…

-----is because of a virus. Regardless of whether they are national carriers, public companies or private companies, they have all been downed because of a virus, not because of any ideology.

I thank the Deputy for reminding us about Brexit because it has not gone away, you know. In many ways, we planned for a potential shock to our economy to occur in early 2020. We thought that might be Brexit and managed to avoid it, and instead we found ourselves dealing with a much sharper shock in the form of Covid-19, which has affected the economy in the way that it has. The joint committee, which is made up of the EU and the UK, can extend economic Brexit happening, if one likes, for another year but they have …

On the regulations, I asked the Attorney General, the Minister for Health and the Minister for Justice and Equality to examine this issue several days ago, which they have. Having looked at the different options, it is their view that the regulations do not need to be amended. However, what is required is greater co-operation between the PSNI and An Garda Síochána. People coming from Northern Ireland into the Republic are breaching Northern Ireland law and vice versa . Unless we prohibit people crossing the Border,…

I will certainly seek advice from the National Public Health Emergency Team, NPHET, on mayfly fishing. The issue of solitary fishing in general - people fishing on a local lake or river on their own - has come up on a number occasions. It is something that I will seek advice on. Deputy Harkin mentioned the issue of domestic violence. There is a concern at present that the fact that people are at home so much more than they would normally be poses a real risk of an increase in both domestic violence and child abuse.…

As of last night, we had 16,671 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in our country. Sadly, 769 people have so far lost their lives: people with lives and stories; people who made a contribution; people who mattered; and people who will be remembered. The Government is eternally grateful to all those working to combat Covid-19, and everyone is playing their part in this emergency, whether through their work or simply by staying home. The good news is that we now estimate that the reproduction number of the disease is betwee…

Absolutely. On being pressed for time, I must represent the country at the European Council which starts at 2 p.m. I would not like the country to be unrepresented at it. In addition, as Members are aware, there is a two-hour public health rule which states that we will become close contacts if we are in the same space for more than two hours. I will first answer the questions asked by Deputy McNamara as he kindly left me time to so do. A recovery plan is in development. It is the plan to allow us to unwind the res…

Which question did I not answer?

On the open source issue, I do not know but I will check that out and come back to the Deputy. It is not an area I have particular expertise in. We do not have exact numbers for the criteria yet. If there are to be magic numbers, they have not been set yet and we do not have any advice on that from NPHET yet. The criteria are the instance of transmission, including in relation to outbreaks in residential and other healthcare settings, ICU occupancy, which is an indicator of transmission in the community, and public…

I ask that the Business Committee consider how we can do this better in future. I have written down nearly six pages of questions.

I welcome this opportunity to discuss the actions being taken to respond to the Covid-19 emergency, to answer questions and to exchange ideas with leaders about future actions to rebuild, revive and renew our country. I am very sorry that Deputy McDonald is not yet back in this Chamber, but I know she will be once fully recovered. Our thoughts today, and every day, are with all of those affected by Covid-19, with all of those sick or recovering. I also welcome Deputy Kelly as the new leader of the Labour Party. I w…

As is often a challenge in this format, it is quicker to ask a question than to answer it. I want to answer as many as I can.

I have jotted down one, two, three, four-----

I am in the Ceann Comhairle's hands.

I have just jotted down six questions that have been asked already.

All I can promise is I will answer as many questions as the time I am given.

I will answer as many of those questions as I can in the time allowed. The matter of nursing homes and care homes is the burning, pressing issue at the moment and was the focus of this morning's meeting of the Cabinet sub-committee on Covid-19. That sub-committee, which was established over a month ago and is chaired by me, is the task force by which the crucial decisions are made on how we deal with this crisis. As the Deputy identified, a month ago there was huge concern about our hospitals and ICUs becoming over…

I am sure Deputies appreciate that some of their questions are going to be very specific and I may not have the answers to them. I absolutely agree with what Deputies have said, that transparency is really important here. If we want to keep the trust of the people, we need to be transparent, but I would also ask for understanding from Deputies that we do not always know the answers to the questions that we are asked. A lot of things are happening in real time at the moment, and one thing we do not want to do is ans…

We are dealing with all of these things in real time, and it is very challenging.