The Government is "sleepwalking" the country "into a lockdown at Christmas", Solidarity/People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy has claimed in the Dáil.
He was speaking in the Dáil after the Cabinet met to discuss a series of restrictions aimed at reducing the spread of Covid-19 He contended the country is in a crisis and hospitals are in danger "of being overrun" because of the Government's decisions over the course of the pandemic.
The Dublin South West TD said our ICU capacity was half the OECD average and, at the current rate, would take another 13 years to achieve the average.
Mr Murphy also argued that the abandonment of tracing and testing in schools had been disastrous - especially when the Government "refuse to bring in anything other