Dr. Tony Holohan:

An outbreak is different because an outbreak will be responded to on its own merits. Deputy Lahart asked what we would like to see in place. The lessons we need to learn as a country from how we best do our public health management is to do our utmost to prevent transmission of this infection. That is the best way we can protect the under pressure healthcare staff and allow them to do the job they are primarily there for, which is not to care for people who are sick as a consequence of this preventable infection. In that context, we need to be responsive in picking up outbreaks at a very early stage-----