Dr. Ronan Glynn:

I thank the Deputy. I will make a wider point in response to the first part of his question. In many ways, the communication challenges we are facing now are much more difficult than those we faced months ago because we simply closed everything and so it was clear to everybody what they should and should not do. As we try to get more nuanced and try to be as proportionate as possible, we will get things wrong and some of our communications have not been, and will not be, as crystal clear as they should be but we will continue to work on that. Ultimately, as I replied earlier to Deputy Mattie McGrath, the key messages have not changed. We want to decrease discretionary social contact between people so that the important elements of human contact can continue as we try to navigate our way through the pandemic. From that perspective, it comes back to the basic measures that we speak about so regularly.

I wish to make one small point of clarification. We want matches to go ahead and we want training to go ahead. We understand there are risks associated with that. We understand there will be cases and clusters arising as a result of that but we weigh that up against the potential loss of those activities in terms of mental, social and physical well-being. We made recommendations to reduce other elements of social contact so that those activities could continue.

With regard to organised sports activities, I have not seen Sport Ireland’s guidance but, ultimately, it comes back to people using judgment and understanding that they should be 2 m apart, where possible. If there is a group of six, it should not interact with another group of six. It is about limiting contact between households. If there are six people from six different households and one of them is a case then our public health teams, who have been working incredibly hard over the past number of months, have six different households to contact trace and follow up with. If the other group comes into contact with that, suddenly we have 12 households, we potentially have 12 workplaces and different school settings. All of that has to be contact traced and followed up. The less we congregate and mix between households over the coming weeks, the greater the chances of the current measures having an effect.

We are concerned about the ongoing increase in cases. If this continues, we will run into trouble in terms of hospitalisations and critical care. We have only had 90 cases among people aged 65 years and over in the past two weeks. That is a key reason we have not seen cases in hospitals and critical care units. That simply will not continue if the increase in cases continues. We are being given an opportunity by the dynamics and the profile of the cases at the moment, in that the disease is spreading largely among younger people. We have been given a window of opportunity to take measures, individually and collectively, to stop this before it gets worse. I urge people to please continue to follow the basic public health advice, never mind all of the confusion that surrounds it - cut down your contacts; cut down the number of people to your home; try to meet up with fewer people, if possible; wash your hands; wear a face covering; and avoid crowds. They are the simple measures. They have not, and will not, change over the coming months.