David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Dr. Glynn and commend him and his team on the work they continue to do. I wish them well in the time ahead. It is difficult for everybody and Dr. Glynn acknowledged in his opening statement the difficulties posed for the general population. He also acknowledged, which is significant and important, that we have more reasons to be hopeful now than at any time during the pandemic. He said we can be hopeful of a return to better and more normal times. Obviously, we all want that. He clearly set out the ingredients which will lead us to a better place in terms of test and trace, travel checks, the roll-out of the vaccine and the current restrictions continuing. I have a number of questions about that.

Dr. Glynn said that he does not want to talk about the specific easing of measures that might be possible in the short term. I assume he does not want to speculate at this point in time and that he will continue to evaluate the data as it emerges over the next number of weeks. He also said that if levels of social contact across the population remain largely unchanged over the next six weeks, NPHET will be in a position to re-evaluate matters.

Is that where we are at, first of all? At this point in time, is it NPHET's position that the level of restrictions currently in place will remain so for the next six weeks or is there the possibility of additional changes within that period?