Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

From the outset, I have always said that this is a living plan that can be accelerated if we are getting on top of and ahead of the virus. One thing we will stick with is the three-week intervals. They are in place for good epidemiological reasons.

If one relaxes restrictions and the virus spreads, incubates and is tested for and so on, it will be at least two weeks before that shows up in the data. We believe we should stick with the three-week intervals. Some people have said that the World Health Organization, WHO, recommends two-week intervals and the European Centre for Disease Control, ECDC, recommends four-week intervals but we have chosen to go with three-week intervals. Three weeks makes sense because we need to know that if we ease restrictions they have not caused the virus to take off again. It is only after two weeks and into the third week before we can know that so we will stick with the three-week window but we can bring measures forward, as the Deputy suggests, from phase 5 to phase 4 or phase 4 to phase 3 as the case may be. We have made proposals to the Chief Medical Officer, CMO, and to the National Public Health Emergency Team, NPHET, about bringing forward measures from phase 4 to phase 3 and from phase 3 to phase 2. NPHET is considering the proposals that the Government has made and the Government will make a decision on Friday morning and inform the public of the decision on Friday afternoon.

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