Dr. Tony Holohan:

Of course there is an appreciation of it. Insofar as we can give a longer-range view, it is simply with regard to the extent that we can get through the phase we are in at present as well as we possibly can and hit an R rate of 0.5, although we do not know whether we will do so and there is no absolute number or one magic target, and get down to low levels of transmission of the type we saw in the summer, whereby we think we have capacity and that we have the virus back under control. We speak about living with the virus. It means having low levels of transmission, a low risk of transmission and a good chance of picking up instances where the disease starts to spread again and picking up outbreaks as early as possible and controlling them. These are the basic requirements we have.

We are confident that we can get back to this situation by the beginning of December if, as the Deputy has probably heard me say before, we can maintain the high level of compliance there is on the part of the public with the public health advice. The vast majority of people are practising much of the public health advice. Over the course of the summer, our reproductive number was up at approximately 1.4 but that is a very suppressed level of disease transmission in the population. If we were doing nothing to control the spread in the population, we would have a reproductive number of approximately 4 or 5. A figure of 1.4 is very good.

Getting the number down to where we need it will not require much more in terms of action on the part of the public, but it would have a big effect. The reason I stress this is because if, optimistically, when we get to 1 December, we are in a position to make recommendations and the Government mandates a change in the arrangements that are in place, the extent we can from that point forward collectively keep the R number low, ideally at or below 1, will push out as far as possible the chance of any further resurgence. The greater we all understand, comply with and align ourselves collectively against the ongoing transmission risks and minimise them, including any risk that comes from travel, the more we can push out as much as possible into the future. The reality for international travel is that the more we have control on an international basis as a shared experience across countries the better position we will be in to see a resumption of this type of activity.