Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the news that we will soon have clarity on when hairdressers, barbers and beauticians will be able to reopen. That will be fantastic news for jobs and for people throughout my constituency.

The public have been reassured throughout this crisis by the flow of information coming from the HSE, NPHET, the Minister and his Department. Releasing data on the number of cases by county made it clear this crisis affected every part of our country. The HSE went one step further and released approximate locations for every reported case. This confirmed to any sceptics that we needed to follow the expert advice, regardless of which village or town we live in. We are, thankfully, now in a very different phase of the crisis and the number of new infections is dwindling.

Will the Minister commit to publishing data on the number of days since there has been a positive diagnosis for Covid-19 in every county in Ireland? Will he also commit to updating those data weekly? That level of detail would reassure counties free from Covid-19 that their efforts have borne fruit and provide hope to other counties that if we continue to follow the public health advice, we will be on a path out of this crisis.

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