Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

As Dr. Holohan and others have said, most of the reductions we have seen in the past two weeks since we moved to level 5 relate back to the level 3 restrictions, we had prior to that. The best scientific advice suggests it takes ten days or two weeks before we start to see the impact of a particular measure. While we need to keep adjusting to this, that gives me some hope - if no more than hope - that as a country we have shown ourselves capable of stopping this virus in its tracks and that we were able to do that under level 3 restrictions. Based on what we are learning in this process and what the Irish people have shown themselves good at doing, there is no reason we should not look further in level 2 and other restrictions even in advance of a vaccine to give us the capability to control this virus. We cannot in my mind yo-yo in and out of very difficult restrictions all the time.