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 the rate of the virus. It is important to bear in mind that business, social and health concerns are different sides of the same coin. The worst thing that could happen our social life and our business life is that the virus gets out of control. All of these issues are connected.

During the summer it was clear that there was concern about international travel. The letter from NPHET in the middle of the summer said that 12% of cases were travel related but it went on to raise alarms about the impact of that 12% in terms of passing on the virus to family groups and other clusters. It was very concerned about it at that stage. It is strange that it has not mentioned it since but we should be listening to what it said during the summer. That was in respect of travel. There was a clampdown on travel followed by monitoring. There were strict requirements to isolate and so on. We now know, however, that there is no system in place. In the first week of September, for example, approximately 60,000 people arrived into this country but less than one fifth of those were contacted with a call to check about contact tracing. There was no monitoring of their movements and no monitoring of compliance. Just last week, the Department of Health confirmed that the locator form and the system of engagement with arriving passengers are not conducted for the purposes of monitoring or enforcement of restricted movement. We now have a system where there is no monitoring at all of anybody coming into this country. The vast majority of travellers coming here are coming from non-green list countries. If we look at what is happening in other countries, there is testing in Germany, for example. In other countries there is a combination of testing with monitoring and quarantining but we have no system here now. That is extraordinary, given the levels of the virus. Why was the policy of trying to monitor people here and setting down clear guidelines changed? There is no monitoring at all at this stage. Will the Taoiseach confirm that there are now no safeguards in place in respect of international travel? What was the reason for that change in policy?

I received the Deputy's letter on 5 October, which I thought was a constructive letter, and I noted the points she made in it, particularly in terms of having a multidisciplinary approach to the pandemic, her sense that we cannot just respond to every upsurge with a severe lockdown, that other aspects had to be taken on board and the need to achieve maximum buy-in. There is a strategy. The Government produced a plan, and it was debated in the House, to live with Covid and try to manage, contain and suppress Covid-19, which has been hailed by other countries as a coherent framework in terms of the five levels. People out there know the basics in terms of preventing the spread of this virus - less congregation, fewer social contacts and the need to mask up. Fundamentally, it is a behaviour issue and the implementation of level 3 across the country is now essential. I met with the Chief Medical Officer this morning. We had a very good discussion again and I paid tribute to his commitment to the country and the selfless way he has come back to help the country deal with the pandemic. We both share a clear determination to get the country through Covid-19 with the help of everybody in this House and across society also.

The time is up.

I am trying to organise a meeting with the party leaders. It looks like it might be Monday at this stage and I will work with leaders in that regard. It is to have a fuller briefing in respect of all aspects of it.

On the travel issue, we are now working on and looking at the European framework that has been published-----

The time is up, please.

-----and we are engaging with the European authorities. The health authorities have been consistently negative about checks and testing at airports. The public health authorities have a different view-----

Can we go back to Deputy Shortall, please?

-----to what the lay view might be in respect of that. I just had to put that on the record. We are dealing with that.

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 exposes the country to the importation of the virus. The Taoiseach talked about looking at the European traffic light system. If we were to introduce that now, Ireland would be in the red zone and we would be completely unprepared in terms of European requirements or standards for testing at our airports or for any kind of quarantining. Currently, there is no system in place. There are no plans under way to address that. That is why I am saying we need a strategy to minimise the virus. Unless the Taoiseach puts in place some kind of safeguards at ports and airports, he is wasting his time.

The public health authorities have been very reluctant to embrace antigen testing or rapid testing. They have had a view, and the engagement is continuing, that testing at airports would not be the wisest use of resources in terms of isolating and contact tracing.

They have fears about it and believe it could lead to multiple false trails involving huge numbers.

I am just explaining it to the Deputy. I am just sharing with her concerns that-----

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

-----public health officials have in regard to this. We have got to deal with it.

The Minister for Health asked HIQA to assess the new testing technologies from a technological perspective. That assessment has been completed and it will be presented to him shortly. Obviously, the Minister for Transport is examining this. There has been a series of multidepartmental meetings on the question of what additional measures we will require if we opt into the European framework.

The oversight committee, chaired by the Secretary General of my Department, met this morning with a view to having stronger enforcement of level 3 restrictions. We are particularly concerned about Northern Ireland. People talk about red zones and so on but Northern Ireland now faces a significant challenge owing to its very high numbers. Clearly, an overspill into the Republic could have consequences so we have to deal with that also. Therefore, the oversight group met this morning. We are considering fines, for example, in terms of traffic and so on.

It is all very late in the day.

It is not, actually.

Please, we cannot have a conversation across the Chamber about this.

Regarding the central point on travel, the Deputy can be briefed by public health officials. They have had concerns consistently about alternatives to the PCR testing regime.