Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I hear the Deputy. What we want to try to find post level 5 is a situation where people are all following the basics, as the Deputy said, and then we want to find whatever the minimum additional restrictions required are to keep the virus down. To the Deputy's point, there is very strong anecdotal evidence, with data now emerging to back it up, that a mixture of congregation and alcohol in various parts of the country, some of it post-sport celebrations, some of it house parties and different things is, sadly, is the opportunity the virus takes to spread. A lot of the time there may have been people involved in that who followed advice to the letter for seven months and then one night said: "For the love of God, I just need to let loose once." Unfortunately the virus exploits those very small transgressions.