I made the point that the situation had clearly disimproved between Thursday and Saturday. There was a substantial increase in the five-day average, and I presume that was conveyed to the Minister on Saturday. I asked him what he expected would be recommended. What did the Minister expect the Chief Medical Officer and NPHET to recommend on Sunday night? I will clarify one of the Minister's comments. I wrote to the Taoiseach on Monday and suggested that we continue to use the levels rather than putting all counties …

The Minister's colleague, the Tánaiste, on Monday night said on RTÉ, "So we thought that this was not the right way to do things, to land something like this on a Sunday night without prior consultation". Does the Minister accept that was a wrong description of the sequence of events over Saturday and Sunday, that there had been communication with the Minister and, I presume, that the gravity of the position had been conveyed to him? The severity of the situation was not just "landed" on the Government on Sunday ni…

In light of the Minister being brought up to date with the deteriorating position on Saturday and again on Sunday, I presume he was expecting level 4. I will just assume that is case. This debate was promised by the Taoiseach when a number of us asked for it and he told us he would be present for it. It is a pity he is not. The debate was also rescheduled, as it was supposed to be tomorrow, which would have been better than late on a Thursday night. There are a couple of general questions I want to ask on the Gover…

Is the Minister responsible for changing the policy?

I am talking about a forum where real work can be done in a collaborative way.

Why is that not happening?

I have raised it with the Taoiseach for months.

I ask the Taoiseach on a regular basis to consider engaging with other party leaders, group leaders and wider society, including health experts and people with expertise from other areas, to consider the development of a strategy intended to minimise the rate of the virus in this country. I frequently make the point that responding to every upsurge with a lockdown or further restrictions is not a strategy. We need to identify those actions and the strategy that will give us the best possible opportunity to minimise…

I support the framework but it is a framework; it is not a strategy. That is the point. What we need is a strategy which will hunt down the virus. To repeat those words that came in at the very beginning of all of this, we need to be hunting down the virus. A high area of risk is travel without any safeguards. People come into this country from many red list countries and there are no safeguards whatsoever in place. I asked the Taoiseach what happened to change that policy. Why was that policy changed? Surely it ex…

The Taoiseach is raising concerns but that is not addressing it.

It is all very late in the day.

On a point of order, the Ceann Comhairle could consider reminding Members of the public health advice in respect of wearing masks and that the main purpose of wearing a mask is to protect other people. I think some people need to be reminded of that.

We should be able to make time available for a special debate and questions and answers on this issue. This is the biggest issue facing the country now. It is completely unacceptable that the Government should take key decisions separate from this House and that there is no accountability. We have the five-level plan. It makes no sense at all that eight counties, where the incidence is less than half the national rate, should be penalised. There should be an incentive there for counties to work together to drive do…

That is not acceptable. Can the Taoiseach please arrange for a special time for a debate and for accountability on this issue?

No. It was-----

The Taoiseach made a phone call.

That is not consultation. It is not cross-party-----

Who is saying that?

Yes.

I am not talking about a-----