I wish to raise the strategy announced yesterday on dealing with Covid-19 entitled Covid-19 Resilience & Recovery 2021: The Path Ahead. Unfortunately, though, it is anything but a path ahead. Regrettably, it is a hope-and-see strategy. There is nothing new in it that we did not know about. It is basically a wing and a prayer. It is totally reliant on vaccines. There is no effort at metrics at all. I did not want timelines. In fact, I believe the comments that were made about mid-summer should not have happened. While I did not want timelines, I wanted to give people hope. I wanted to see some metrics that could be defined by the public health teams, namely, the National Public Health Emergency Team, NPHET, and the Government. However, there is nothing there to give people hope. The people are in despair. I have never in my political career felt the despair as I have over the last number of weeks, particularly given all the communications failures the Government has had.

My real issue is that there are no new tools and nothing in the plan to suppress the virus; it is a case of let us just wait for the vaccines. The reason there are no new tools is because the Government does not have confidence, unfortunately, that it will be able to keep all the variants out. We know there is another UK version, unfortunately, and a Californian version. They all need analysis. The Government will not be able to deal with community transition as quickly as we need it to, and the public health teams simply are not resourced enough.

Many times, Opposition parties make suggestions and the Government challenges them to back it up with their own policies or put forward ideas or proposals. Here, therefore, are seven proposals which are not in the plan: mandatory quarantine, which we will be discussing later today and which the Government is opposing with regard to it being brought in for everywhere; antigen testing, which I have now been proposing for six months in this House; a survey of why businesses are sending so many people into work; serial testing of congregated settings; retrospective track, trace and testing; sick pay; and resourcing public health teams in order that they can act quickly on future outbreaks. None of these seven proposals are included in the document to suppress the virus and give people hope. Let us all just rely on the vaccine roll-out. I pray it is successful.

The public are in despair, however. I am not sure if the Taoiseach realises that. Therefore, I will ask this of him quite clearly on the floor of the Dáil, seeing as he would not cover it in his document yesterday. What is he doing in a different way to suppress the virus, get down community transmission rates and make sure the variants do not come into this country?

First, I disagree with the Deputy. We have been guided by the public health team all the way in terms of the path ahead. NPHET is very clear that the five-level framework is the correct approach and then we should apply flexibilities in different given situations. That is the first point.

Suppression of the virus, irrespective of form, does not change in terms of what we must do as a society regarding congregation. It does not actually change, according to the public health experts. Social distancing and avoidance of congregation are what drive down virus levels. We should be driven by data, not dates. The Deputy has not specified any metrics this morning in his contribution. The last one-----

It is not my job.

It actually is.

It is the Taoiseach's job.

I am clear in how we are approaching this. I did not interrupt the Deputy. The bottom line is that two months ago, the Deputy was in favour of the living with Covid-19 document. He said it should not be torn up. A month later, he said it should be zero Covid. The Deputy is changing his mind every single month. I regret that because I want to work with him. I want to work with people. However, the bottom line is that we have to get the numbers down. The Deputy knows that. We must get hospital and intensive care numbers down. That is a clear metric. We must keep community transmission down. As for vaccination, that is important. Vaccination is working already in our hospital care settings. It is having a dramatic effect on reducing infection among front-line healthcare workers. We are one of the few countries which targeted that area in terms of the vaccination programme. It is working and is having a real impact. It will have an impact on older people and those who are most vulnerable. That is why we now have given a higher priority to adults with underlying conditions. Those who are most vulnerable to the disease will be vaccinated first and given protections.

Variants are an issue. We are bringing forward legislation in terms of mandatory quarantining, which will give the Minister the authority to add designated countries to the list, as recommended by the public health team. It must be grounded in public health grounds. The Bill will also have the capacity to facilitate the addition of further countries. The plan references antigen testing. Professor Mark Ferguson-----

That is six months later.

I support the introduction of it but the Deputy and everyone in this House agreed that we would take on board expert advice and public health advice. Those authorities have not been as enthusiastic about it because they believe polymerase chain reaction, PCR, testing is the gold standard. The Deputy knows that and I know that as the Deputy has been briefed on that in public health meetings just as well as I have. That said, NPHET has stated antigen testing has a role in terms of outbreak settings and so on. Professor Mark Ferguson is chairing a group on antigen testing. That group will be reporting shortly with a view to implementing additional antigen testing. Resources are there for public health infrastructure. Testing and tracing has expanded very significantly in recent months and that should be acknowledged.

I have suggested seven tools but they are not part of the Government's plan. Many of them were suggested previously and they were not taken on board. I find it shocking that the Taoiseach has come in here and said the Government will not provide metrics but that he is asking the Opposition to put forward metrics, given the fact that the Taoiseach is the person who deals fully with the public health advice all the time.

On quarantine, what the Government is proposing is laughable. Some 2,000 Brazilians came into this country. Can the Taoiseach tell the public out there, who are limited to staying within 5 km, that it was necessary for 2,000 Brazilians to come into this country to work in low-paid employment? Was that absolutely necessary?

We are reliant on the vaccines and I have made suggestions on the vaccine roll-out that have not been taken on board. I want to ask one specific question on vaccines. Denmark has said it will vaccinate its country by 27 June. Denmark and Germany bought extra vaccines through the EU framework from Greece and Portugal as those countries did not take them up. Why did Ireland not do so? Can the Taoiseach explain to the House how Denmark and Germany got to buy those vaccines before Ireland and what efforts we made?

Antigen testing will be undertaken in the path ahead. We have been doing serial testing for quite some time. I do not know why the Deputy is suggesting that we are not-----

If the Taoiseach goes down to the University of Limerick he will see.

We have been doing serial testing in all nursing homes for the last year. We have also been doing it in direct provision centres and meat factories for periods. As we have been doing serial testing in different settings, the concept of serial testing is there.

What about schools?

We did not do it in schools because it was not advised to do so but we have been doing serial testing consistently and we will expand it again where the public health advice deems it necessary. Sick pay has also been addressed in the context of Covid-19, as the Deputy knows.

It is a bit populist and wrong to speak about 2,000 Brazilians coming into the country in the way the Deputy did. Many of those people are Irish or Irish residents. I do not know the exact details of those people but there has been a Brazilian community in Ireland for quite some time and the Deputy should reflect on that.

That is rubbish.

People leave and come back in but there will be a need for mandatory quarantining.

Say that to the public.

We have provided for mandatory quarantining for those from Brazil, South Africa and other countries, as designated by the public health advice.

What about Germany and Denmark?