People are frightened and struggling to cope with what lies ahead. However, they will endure this lockdown. They will do so because it gives them the hope that Christmas can be saved. This is how it has been sold to them. If they focus on the fact that Christmas can be celebrated with some semblance of our "old normal", they are willing to take the darkness now, so that the lights can shimmer in December.

We have been down this road before. In March, we aimed to save summer. In October, we aim to save Christmas. What will our next aim be? The question I pose today is whether we are learning from the actions we are taking. Are we being proactive or reactive? Are we locking down people and locking up the economy while neglecting to rethink our strategy and vary our approach?

There are two weapons we can use to win this battle of survival, namely, technology and enforcement. We need a renewed emphasis on the importance of testing and tracing. We also need the implementation of fast turnaround diagnostic testing in schools and at airports and ports. We must sanction screening for workplaces to detect asymptomatic cases. I have been told by those working on the front line that people are hanging up when they are phoned and told they are a close contact of a positive case. This sounds alarming, but it is factual. People are revolting in a dangerous way. We need rapid testing to get people back onside.

All of our strategic decisions around Covid are based on critical care bed capacity and the fear of our hospitals being overwhelmed. We have to close down our economy because our bed capacity is totally inadequate. This is due to the abject failure of the HSE over many years to proactively manage our health system. The country and its people are now paying an enormous price for the years of failure in the administration and political oversight of the health service. The alarm bells have been deafening for many years. We now have a healthcare system that cannot handle a winter crisis, never mind a pandemic. We throw money at the problem, but we do not see results.

Issues such as these must be tackled without delay. The next six weeks cannot simply be about suppressing a virus that will come out to join us again after the Christmas celebrations. This lockdown must be a time to tackle the problems that have led us to where we are now. Everything must be scrutinised, every success recorded, every failure rectified and every alternative analysed. We must use this time to harness the medical and healthcare industry to investigate and implement additional initiatives to urgently increase high-level bed capacity.

The shock and harsh reality of the closure has again hit our bewildered business community. This further lockdown will have incredibly negative consequences for business. To address this the Government has introduced the Covid restrictions support scheme, CRSS. Could the Tánaiste explain the value of this fund and the criteria and procedures relating to drawing it down?

It is very hard to be sure of things at this time. One thing I am sure of is that Christmas will not be cancelled. It will still be a public holiday. It will still be a religious festival. Christmas mass will still be said. Santa will still arrive and put presents under the tree. I am sure that families will still be able to meet up. It just might not be the Christmas that we are used to in terms of having parties and doing other things that we would like to do.

Will people be able to go to Christmas mass?

Christmas mass will of course be said.

Deputy Lowry asked if we are always rethinking and varying our strategy. We are. Anyone who speaks with absolute certainty about the coronavirus is probably bluffing. We have learned a lot about this virus, and we have a lot yet to learn about it. We have learned a lot about how to handle a pandemic, and we have a lot yet to learn about it. We are always rethinking and varying our strategy as facts change and as new evidence becomes available.

Bed capacity is always a concern. It is an issue but in many ways the position in this regard has been overstated in recent weeks. Since the start of the year we have added 800 beds to the hospital system, 400 acute and 400 sub-acute and 30 additional ICU beds, with more to come. As things stand, there are approximately 300 or so patients in hospital with Covid. They are occupying that number of hospital beds out of a total of 11,000. There are approximately 35 patients in ICU with Covid and they are occupying that number of ICU beds out of a total of approximately 280. It is only when the total number of people in ICU goes over 280 that the ICU system goes from green to amber, let alone red.

A rough measure of overcrowding in hospitals is the number of patients on trolleys. Today, it is 133 and many of those people are on trolleys because they need to be isolated, not because a bed is not available. That is down 65% on this time last year and 66% on the previous year. In fact, the number of patients on trolleys and the level of overcrowding in hospitals is probably at an all-time low. Indicative of this is the fact that the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, INMO, still produces a daily count but no longer produces a monthly count. That is because these are the months with the lowest numbers on record in terms of overcrowding. That may not come across sometimes in the debate about this matter.

The CRSS is being run by the Revenue Commissioners and will open to applications this week, if not next week, and will apply any time we are at level 3 or above. It will kick in retrospectively from the budget date for that reason. The way it works is that any company whose premises is closed as a result of a Government order can claim a weekly grant based on its previous turnover. This will amount to 10% of €1 million in the first year and 5% on the second million. I can perhaps go into more detail during the follow-up response.