Indoor camps and pub reopening
Alan Kelly challenged the inconsistency of public health advice on indoor summer camps for children versus reopening pubs, asking the Taoiseach to reconsider. The Taoiseach said the advice on indoor events remained problematic, case numbers were rising, and reopening would continue cautiously under review.
As the Taoiseach knows, I have two young children, Aoibhe and Senan, aged ten and 11. I committed to asking the Taoiseach a question today on their behalf following a conversation I had with them. What is the public health advice that says it is okay for them to go into a pub next week but they cannot attend their indoor summer camps? I would like to know what it is and how scientific it is. Over the summer, the children of people who are staying in hotels where there is a summer camp can attend it but children living outside of there cannot. It is not rational. I am not criticising; I am just asking the Taoiseach to reconsider this very quickly. Legislation will go through the Dáil today. It is complex and, in a way, incoherent legislation but parking that, will the Taoiseach please look at this issue? There has to be a degree of common sense. Not all children are into outside sports.
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My constituency colleague, Deputy Cahill, received an answer in June stating they would go ahead.
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Will the Taoiseach please reconsider this?
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We always keep these issues under review. I appreciate Aoibhe and Senan asking these questions. The public health advice has been that indoor events are problematic. I would say to everybody in the House that the numbers are rising. We will know today that the case numbers are rising, as are hospital numbers. We saw what happened in the Netherlands, where the Government has had to apologise for reopening too quickly. We see what the French Government is now saying on requiring vaccination passes for access to hospitality. This is a fast-moving situation. We have cautiously but assuredly reopened much in our society. I remember saying at the beginning of the summer that it would be an outdoor summer. We have made progress, perhaps faster than we would have anticipated. We have opened large sectors of the economy and society.