Dr. Joseph Ryan:

The plan has a forward line, which is what you might call the optimistic line. That is what we are aiming for. It also has a fallback line. I am no epidemiologist, but what I am hearing is that we are on the foothills of a fourth wave. That fourth wave is coming, as people here have said, at the same time as a very successful vaccination programme and antigen testing. We anticipate, even in the worst-case scenario, that we will be significantly in advance of where we were.

As for the supports, the collegiate work that has been done on this and the support from the Minister, the Department and the whole political establishment have been very impressive. Obviously, we hope that that will continue and that when we come with informed advice as to where those supports need to be targeted, we will get the same hearing as we have been getting.