I welcome this motion, the essential elements of which amount to a zero Covid strategy. Whether people call it a maximum suppression strategy or an aggressive suppression strategy, it amounts to the same. It is about driving down the figures of the virus, ideally to single digits, while having a proper testing and tracing system that is capable of hunting down the virus, jumping on any outbreak, finding out where it came from and dealing with it. Critically, it also involves having clear controls on the importation…

Quite honestly, I do not think anybody knows what the Taoiseach is saying. What exactly is he talking about regarding travel? I have consistently said that the failure of this Government and the last Government to address the issue of travel has been the biggest single failing in the response to Covid-19. At no point have we had a coherent and effective system to address the threat posed by inward travel. As my colleague said, this virus does not come in on the wind; it comes in via people travelling on planes and …

Will it be in their rooms?

I ask the Taoiseach to answer the question.

That is not having it both ways.

The Taoiseach has not answered any of the questions I asked him. His point about support for the airlines is nonsense. Of course we need to support airlines and airline workers if there are serious controls on travel. Throughout last year we had advice to self-isolate, which did not work. We know there was not any enforcement of this and that there was no serious system in place. This changed to restrict one's movements. We know there was no policing of that and it did not work. In Christmas week the Government was…

Everybody is paying a huge price in the curtailment of their personal freedoms.

The Taoiseach needs to put a system in place of mandatory hotel quarantining so that we have some prospect of people being able to exercise personal freedoms and so we can have some element of opening up the country to normality. That can be done with a zero Covid policy. It cannot be done-----

-----with a confused plan that the Taoiseach has now.

That is not true.

Please do.

A number of us briefed-----

-----at the beginning of December-----

Will the Taoiseach explain-----

Will the Taoiseach-----

The Taoiseach said it would not be enforceable.

What are we talking about? Is it going into a house?

I do not agree with the Order of Business. It is unbelievable that in the midst of a pandemic that is worsening in many aspects, there is no time allocated to discuss the Government's response to Covid. An announcement was made last week and no time was allowed to debate it whatsoever. There are umpteen aspects to this, including the fact that we are probably facing a public health doctors' strike very shortly because of the Government's failure to address the valid concerns those essential workers have. It is shoc…

I am happy to have the opportunity to speak in this short debate on this technical order on the carry-over of capital expenditure. The Social Democrats are happy to acknowledge that they do not, in principle, have an issue with this and will comply with the requirement of a Dáil approval for that order. There is no doubt that the figure we are carrying over is very substantial at close to €710 million. It will be added to the expected capital expenditure for next year, bringing the total capital expenditure to €10.…

On a point of order, my understanding is that this slot is for the Minister. This whole session is supposed to be about the Minister's accountability for his responsibilities. Why is he sharing his time with a Government backbencher? It is not acceptable. I am not just making a political point.