Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Catherine Murphy for the questions and will start with the last question first. Regarding commercial rents and landlords, I outlined where many of them are giving that latitude and are working with their tenants, and rightly so. There always will be, however, a cohort that does not do that. I spoke to the Minister for Justice and Equality about this issue and I requested the Attorney General to look at this issue and at how models in other countries have worked. The difficulty is there could be constitutional issues involved because commercial tenants and landlords are subject to commercial and contract law. There could be issues in that respect because many such contracts are complex and that is why this is taking a bit longer. The Deputy should believe that there is a willingness to try to address the issue but we have to do it in a way that will work. That is the update on that matter.

Regarding the exit plan or strategy, we hope and expect to be in a position to share that with the public in the next couple of days. The plan will set out different steps we need to take in order that we can reopen the country and our society based on different levels at different intervals. We need to get the advice from the Chief Medical Officer, CMO, on Friday as to when we should start the process of reopening the country and the economy. In doing so, we really have to look at things such as the number of patients in the ICUs and the position in respect of Covid-19. Those numbers are just not good enough yet, as we know.

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