As the Ceann Comhairle said, I do not speak for the Tánaiste. I can apologise on my own behalf but not on behalf of anyone else. It would not be proper for me to apologise for the Government decision because I believe it was the right one. Even if it is not, just like the advice of the National Public Health Emergency Team, NPHET, it was arrived at with only one intention, to minimise the damage and do best by the country.

This pertains to the second part of the Deputy's question. I would like to divide this into process and substance. The substance is what matters. What matters is that we have moved the country to level 3. The debate over whether we should be at level 3 or level 5 is the debate that matters. With regard to the Chief Medical Officer, I have given multiple interviews, had a press conference and appeared on "Prime Time", and in every one of those appearances I unequivocally and wholeheartedly endorsed the man and his r…

Governments are responsible for the decisions they make and I am a member of the Government. There is no ambiguity about that. The much more complex and difficult question is this: what will the outcome of this decision be compared to a counterfactual scenario we cannot evaluate, that is, a move to level 5? I know the Deputy wants to ask another question but I will give him one brief example. If we had moved to level 5 this week, it is clear that the number of cases would be lower in six weeks than if we stay at le…

I have to consider that if less money is available for healthcare next year because of a move to level 5, that will also have very serious health implications.

I thank the Deputy. The answer to the first question is "Yes". The Taoiseach and I discussed level 4. The video came from Fianna Fáil.

The latest update I have from the Chief Medical Officer tonight is that the R-number is 1.2 for the country. Cases are continuing to rise but the R-number has come down. On mass screening, which is also referred to as serial testing, there are several programmes under way. There is serial testing in nursing homes, the meat processing industry and direct provision centres. The positivity rates are very low. The latest data indicates approximately 0.3% positivity, which is very positive, if the Deputy will excuse the…

I thank Deputy O'Donoghue. I am one of the people at Cabinet who has a business background. I have a sense of how difficult it is to get up in the morning and work every hour so that you can pay your staff, pay your bills and, heaven forbid, get a bit of a margin at the end of the day to take home and live your own life. It breaks my heart to see what has happened around this country because of this disease. I see people who have dedicated their entire lives to running small local businesses or big businesses, or f…

Deputy Mattie McGrath might come back to me. Apologies, I was taking notes on his final question, which was testing. There are good solutions out there. Rapid testing or antigen testing is being looked at. NPHET considered a paper on it today. They will now do so-called "validation" of it, that is, run it side-by-side with polymerase chain reaction, PCR, testing, which is the accepted gold standard. I would like to see it deployed but, obviously, we have to get the nod in terms of validation. The HSE is working and…

I do not know that there is a delay. Various countries are testing it. For example, there is a pilot programme in Heathrow Airport at present. We are looking at it. NPHET had it today. I would hazard an estimate that it will be deployed in the future, for example, as part of the airport testing, but we will have to have it validated by the health experts. In terms of hiring, the HSE is hiring more than 3,000 people on the testing and contact tracing. I beg the Deputy's pardon. Will he remind me of his first questio…

Given the fluidity of the situation and the fact that we are learning all the time, that suggestion should be kept under consideration. Certainly, what I want to see and what, when we launched the framework, was brought in was an oversight committee with representation from other Departments, such as business, transport and foreign affairs, to try to do that. Should we have as much broad and rounded experience from the very best women and men in this country feeding into what is a national effort? Absolutely, we sh…

I can cut to the heart of the Deputy's question and allegations. I can assure the Deputy that I did not talk to any journalists about moving to level 4. The events were quite clear. The events were: I contacted the Chief Medical Officer early on Sunday and said I would like to talk before NPHET; he and I spoke; we had a very productive conversation; he talked about the escalating situation; the prospect of moving to level 4 was raised; and we spoke after NPHET. NPHET met, I believe, at noon. I do not know when they…

Okay. Honestly, who knows? People leak information. The Deputy and I have both been here for the past ten years and we know that. I can only say that I was not leaking anything. I was focused very much on NPHET, the situation and what could happen. The recommendation was very serious even if we did not go to level 5, going to level 3 is a really serious thing to do and a very difficult decision to make. That was my sole focus.

On the leak, the Deputy and I have worked together for many years and he knows I have the height of respect for him but I think the comments about the Taoiseach are unfair. I know he is just wondering out loud but ------

I do not think that it is fair. I acknowledge the gravity of the Deputy's second question and thank him for asking it. Many are asking questions about who texted who when and who called who when and why did something happen at 6 p.m. on a Saturday instead of 12 o'clock on a Sunday. There was a very clear process over the weekend which led us to have to make a decision. All that matters is the substance of the Deputy's question. I have met the zero Covid people and we have had some good conversations. There is good …

Yes but we share it with another jurisdiction and we are an open country. The R-nought is 1.2. I want to see a national effort to achieve across the country what the people of Kildare, Laois, and Offaly nailed in August. If we get the R-nought below 1 the virus will begin to go back. We need to push it right back down. The reason we are staying at level 3 rather than going to level 5 is because when one considers the societal, health and economic impacts - and the latter is related to future healthcare provision, i…

I am going to refute various statements that the Deputy made. NPHET met on Sunday. I then met the Chief Medical Officer, the deputy Chief Medical Officer and the Secretary General and we discussed what was a very serious recommendation. NPHET met the Cabinet Covid committee-----

-----the next morning at 12 noon. Then the Cabinet met. The Deputy has suggested that some attacking and negative briefing against NPHET was going on during that period, culminating in something else on Tuesday. That is simply untrue. I have, as has the rest of the Government, a close working relationship with NPHET.

Are we always going to agree with NPHET? No. The Deputy's own party did not agree with the move to level 5.

I am answering-----

-----but I am first refuting-----