I wish to raise, in the context of Covid-19, the issue of publicans throughout the country. In recent days we have heard talk of new legislation being brought in to stop people from selling drink from pubs for consumption off site. This has been looked at and is creating a frenzy within the family of the publicans who do not know what is happening from day to day. The see the reaction to the scenes from last weekend as a knee-jerk one.

If we want a safe environment for people to have a social drink in, the best way to do it is through the licensed premises that operate a safe and controlled environment. I am not asking the Taoiseach to state today whether the pubs will open for Christmas but I am asking him to engage with the vintners' federations to make sure that they know in advance what they need to do if they are to open. Pubs have been open, shut, open and shut again. Publicans have a lot of money tied up in stock and in credit notes with drinks suppliers. They do not have cash to live on. They are saying to me and to a lot of other Deputies that they need to be treated with a bit of respect. They are licensed, compliant and will not open their premises unless they can do so under the strict rules that will be in place. I see that myself right across my constituency of Galway East.

In the interests of having a safe environment for people to have a social drink, will the Taoiseach consider my suggestion? The alternative, as we know, is to have the shebeens, which are in existence, and the house parties, which are uncontrolled with no social distancing. Even this morning I heard on my local radio station of a taxi driver who brought people home to a house from a party in another place at about 7 o'clock this morning in Galway city and they were reeking of drink. This is what is going on and we need to get drinking back to a social, controlled and safe environment.

I had a call 20 minutes ago from a publican in Monivea and he said it is a simple ask. Please engage with the industry to make sure that we can open the pubs, if they are to be opened, and to give them notice to do that. They have difficulties with finding staff and organising things to get themselves up and running again. They are at the end of the line. I ask the Taoiseach to show respect to them. I know it is difficult but they need to be engaged with now rather than being left waiting for an announcement that they will be allowed to open or not and being given very short notice.

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. The Government took the decision to move to level 3, which had significant implications for hospitality in general and for pubs, then decided to restrict household visits, moved to level 4 in some counties, and then to level 5 across the entire country. What was the motivation behind all of that? The motivation was simply to reduce community transmission of the virus. Why? We wanted to reduce the number of people who will die from the virus, to reduce the number of people who will have illness and prolonged illness because of the virus, and to reduce the spread of the virus. That is the only motivation for these restrictions. There is no other motivation. Believe me, the Government would like nothing better than to reopen society tomorrow morning or next week if that was possible.

Level 5 has worked. Level 3 had an impact and level 5 has had an impact to such an extent that we are the third best performing country in Europe in reducing the number of cases and the 14-day incidence. In recent days that has gone back up again. Some of the numbers have gone up but we are still third best in Europe. We should acknowledge that.

It is important to acknowledge that due to the hard work and sacrifices of people across the country, we have made significant progress. That is very significant for our hospitals. It is also very significant in terms of keeping our schools open, which has been a significant achievement since September on behalf of all those involved in our school communities. We have kept construction open. We have kept quite a lot of non-Covid health services open as well. That has all been enabled by the restrictions we brought in. It has been enabled by the sacrifices of the people. They have sacrificed a lot, including, for example, not being able to go the funeral of a loved one. That is very tough on people. Restricting people from visiting another household is a very tough sacrifice for them to make. Not being able to go out and socialise is a sacrifice that people are making. Not being able to go beyond 5 km is a very big restriction on personal liberty and freedom.

Juxtaposed against that are the scenes of last weekend and the previous weekend, where large crowds gathered outside takeaway facilities. It is problematic in terms of the overall messaging and maintaining and underpinning confidence in the sacrifices people have made. We need to acknowledge that. It is why enforcement of existing laws is important, and we will have further engagement with the Garda in that regard. The key point is that this issue needs to be highlighted and it needs to be responded to.

In terms of engagement with different sectors, we will engage with publicans. However, I have to say that Covid thrives where crowds gather. This has implications, and has had implications, for the hospitality sector. When we went into level 5, we said we would try to exit on 1 December into level 3. I will talk to Deputies on this issue later and we will engage with sectors in advance of any decision the Government takes.

I thank the Taoiseach for his reply. To be clear, I am not advocating that we change anything. I, too, acknowledge that the people of this country have made a huge sacrifice, and continue to do so, and that all the restrictions that are there are necessary. I would also say that what we saw at the weekend, with crowds gathering, is unacceptable and is flying in the face of what the majority of people are trying to do. My concern, and the concern of publicans, is not so much that they want to be open for business but that they want to know, if they are going to open, how they will manage it safely. The engagement with them is very important.

As the Taoiseach says, Covid transmission will thrive where we have people congregating. The fear I have is that if we do not have some sort of social outlet, in a licensed and safe way, over the Christmas period, we will have unofficial, unsafe and uncontrolled gatherings like we saw last weekend. That is a difficulty and I know it is not easy to make any decision. I repeat that I am not asking the Taoiseach to reopen the pubs but just to engage with publicans.

I fully appreciate the Deputy's question and his motivations. As I have said, we will engage with different sectors. We are very conscious of the enormous fiscal intervention that the Government, on behalf of the State, has had to make to underpin as many businesses and jobs as we possibly can during levels 3, 4 and 5, because the impact is very severe. It is estimated, for example, that the wage subsidy scheme, from its introduction last March to next March, will cost some €5.5 billion. There are 350,000 people on the pandemic unemployment payment at the moment and it is costing €102 million a week. The new Covid restrictions support scheme, which assists businesses that have been closed for some length of time or the turnover of which has gone way down, will cost a very significant amount as well. The issue of supporting and underpinning industries, particularly the hospitality, travel and tourism sector, is one that is constantly within the Government's sights. Unprecedented interventions have been made across the board to try to keep the edifice of jobs and business intact during this pandemic.