Dr. Ronan Glynn:

I have to disagree with an earlier point. There is a growing narrative that if we had just one more data point or piece of information that we would be able to control this in a better way. There are acres of data out there. Every time we make a set of recommendations, the data upon which we make those recommendations is published within hours of a Government decision. The reason that we do not publish at ED level is that, as of a couple of weeks ago, there was nowhere in Europe publishing data at an ED level. We engaged extensively with the CSO to find the lowest level that we could publish on which that office would be confident would not be breach confidentiality or have unforeseen consequences. That level was LEA. I do not believe that there is anybody in this country, if they are really interested in what is happening in their area, who cannot go online and see data. There are acres of data on the Health Protection Surveillance Centre, HSPC, website. We publish data on hospitalisations, intensive care, deaths and underlying conditions.

On one hand, we are being told we need to stop the daily briefings because we are worrying people and giving too much information. On the other side, we are being told we are not giving enough. We have to manage a pandemic in the middle of this. I contend that there is no lack of data. That is not the issue when it comes to managing this. It is for certain sectors which are looking to postpone what they might have to do to take on their share of what needs to be done. However, there is more than enough data on this pandemic at this point for every sector and every part of this country to know what to do to protect itself.