Mr. Bernard Gloster:

That is not an unreasonable observation to make, looking back. It should be noted, however, that the first Covid case was confirmed in Ireland in February. Going back to 12 or 13 March, when the country went into the first phase of lockdown, many people would say this was the first time the entire country moved into a very different understanding of what was likely. I would not seek to defend that and the Deputy makes a fair observation. However, we must take into account what was unfolding at the time. Ventilators were not really being talked about in January, at which point we were only hearing about the emergence of a virus in China. February presented a slightly different scenario and then the country ramped up. The Deputy will remember all the news bulletins about aeroplanes leaving Dublin Airport to go to China for PPE and so on. It was all done in that phase. Having said that, the Deputy's observation is fair.