Professor Philip Nolan:

That was not the case. The initial strategy was threefold. First, it was to ensure that the health system was not overwhelmed. At the same time, we were very focused on reducing community transmission. From the outset, there was specific reference to sheltering the elderly and specific needs in long-term residential care, as people will see if they goes back to the announcements made on 11 March. I acknowledge that because everybody was worried about ICU beds and acute hospitals, it seemed that the focus was on acute hospitals. In fairness to NPHET, its focus was on the need to suppress the virus in the community and protect acute hospitals and the vulnerable. It will always come back to that. One can take specific measures to protect people in congregated settings if the virus is wild in the community, but the only way to fully protect them is to have the virus at incredibly low levels in the community. If it is at high levels in the community, there will be some transmission into congregated settings despite of everybody's best efforts. When it gets in there, as the Deputy is aware, it is, tragically, very difficult to control and very lethal. In fairness to NPHET, it was a tripartite strategy from a very early stage.