Professor Patricia Kearney:

The disease has significant mental health implications. Part of the strategy we are proposing involves the idea of giving people a goal that they can work towards. While we recognise that there would be negative implications of being in a red zone, the idea is that we would all have a shared goal of getting to green. The other thing that we had not clarified is the idea that while these zones would be at county level, once one is in a green zone, one can then move to other green zones. Over time, Ireland as a whole will go from red to green. People who currently face the hardship of being in a red zone will at least see the steps that need to be put in place, which will be made clear, as something to work towards.