-----various false allegations the Deputy has made.

I have answered it repeatedly, Deputy. Yes, I spoke to the Chief Medical Officer on Sunday morning. We discussed the escalating epidemiological situation. The potential for a move to level 4 was raised. I emphasised my desire to see NPHET stick to the parameters of the framework. The information about level 4 was conveyed to the Taoiseach.

Yes. That would not be a problem. Perhaps we can engage after this session and the Deputy can tell me exactly to which report he is referring. I will certainly endeavour to get it for him. There should not be any issue with that whatsoever. Serial testing is under way in meat processing plants. Happily, the positivity rate remains very low. The tests are working and picking things up, but the Deputy is right. Due to the nature of this disease, many people who are asymptomatic could be working in higher risk places …

I apologise. I did not realise that there would be ten minutes at the end, given that we were dealing with the questions as we went along.

Thank you. I thank all of the Deputies for their various questions. I will finish with this. While there has been a great deal of debate, as there always will and should be in this Chamber, none of us wants to see the country moving to level 4 or 5 because we understand the consequences of that. We know it is possible, but I do not believe it is inevitable. We will have an opportunity over the next few weeks to push the R number below 1. If we do that, the virus will begin to shrink. We will then keep pushing it ba…

I welcome this opportunity to update the House on Resilience and Recovery 2020-2021: Plan for Living with Covid-19. Before I begin, I want to acknowledge the enormous impact this virus has had on our society. Every corner of the country has been affected on some level and it has touched every county, community and family. We have had to stay away from friends and family members for months. Some people have lost their jobs and others have lost businesses that they had dedicated their lives to building. Some sectors …

I welcome this opportunity to address the House on the winter plan which was published last week. Every winter, our healthcare system faces increasing pressures, resulting in difficulties for many people and many patients, particularly older people, in accessing services in a timely way. This becomes most evident, as we know, in the hospital emergency departments in the form of overcrowding, longer waiting times and patients receiving care on trolleys. Before Covid arrived in Ireland, we already had the longest wai…

I welcome the opportunity to address the House today on the National Screening Advisory Committee Bill 2020. I thank Senators Norris, Craughwell and Boyhan for their interest in this crucial topic which is so important to parents all over Ireland and I acknowledge the ongoing campaigning work and push from Senator Norris on this matter. I would not oppose this Bill in any event because of its merits but as a very long-standing fan of Senator Norris's work over many decades, it would be unthinkable for me to come in…

That is what we are going to do. The only question before us is what is the best way to do that. Everyone in this House is trying to do exactly the same thing, which is to introduce the best possible regime for newborn screening in the country. I believe we can and must do more. Speaking specifically to the Bill, the reason I asked for a timed amendment was that I believe the committee needs to be left to build up some pace and a head of steam. It is already working. I will talk later about the ninth condition I ha…

I thank the Senator. I wish to make a point about public health, which is what this is all about. My strong suspicion and the view of public health professionals is that public health has been a poor relation of other healthcare in this country for a very long time. I was before the Special Committee on Covid-19 Response earlier today. Today we made two very significant announcements. The first is that I have just sanctioned a doubling of our public health workforce. Before the Covid-19 pandemic reached Ireland we …

That is true. It is significant. The enabling legislation was sanctioned yesterday and we will create public health consultant contracts for the first time. The other aspect is that I announced a few hours ago that we will double our public health workforce. The HSE will begin that recruitment in the coming two weeks. I thank Senators for their comments on public health and the need for us to increase our screening and public health capacity. The announcements made today are relevant to that and will go a long way …

Temporary regulations were brought in for the sole purpose of limiting the spread of Covid-19 to save lives, protect health, get our hospitals, schools and colleges open and allow the economy to function. That is what they are for. The Government opposes the motion to annul these regulations but I welcome the opportunity to discuss them and I thank the Deputies for tabling it. I welcome the opportunity to discuss the plans for opening the pubs and bars in the context of a roadmap which will be published next week. …

As I said, we are looking at an increase in the number of cases at the moment, and that is a concern. Many other countries are seeing such a resurgence. In order to deal with the resurgence we need to ensure we strike a balance between necessary restrictions for the protection of people's health and allowing people to live their lives and communities to gather and socialise. That is why restaurants and pubs serving food could reopen, subject to the substantial meal requirement, and why pubs which do not serve food …

That is not true.

No, I did not.

The Deputy is saying things that are false.

It is not.

I welcome this opportunity to update the House on Ireland's ongoing response to Covid-19. I start by expressing my deepest sympathies to the family and friends of all those who have lost their lives to Covid-19 in Ireland. It is a loss made harder for many by the limits Covid-19 has put on our lives, with families looking through windows of nursing homes to try to communicate with their loved ones and lifelong friends unable to walk to the graveside to bid farewell. It has been such a difficult year for so many peo…

I do not believe I can reply as we are on statements but I am happy to talk to the Deputy about the issue afterwards. It has already been raised with me and I am very happy to engage with him on it.

I move amendment No. 1: To delete all words after “Dáil Éireann” and substitute the following: “notes: — that the National Cancer Registry of Ireland records that over 23,000 people are diagnosed with cancer annually, with a further 20,000 people diagnosed with the common but rarely fatal non-melanoma skin cancer; — the lack of clear comparable data on incidence across jurisdictions given variations in the nature of data collection and registration; — that survival for Irish cancer patients continues to improve acc…