Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Yes but we share it with another jurisdiction and we are an open country.

The R-nought is 1.2. I want to see a national effort to achieve across the country what the people of Kildare, Laois, and Offaly nailed in August. If we get the R-nought below 1 the virus will begin to go back. We need to push it right back down. The reason we are staying at level 3 rather than going to level 5 is because when one considers the societal, health and economic impacts - and the latter is related to future healthcare provision, it is not just about the economy - that that was the best option. We could end up on level 4 or 5, that is why they are part of the framework, but we must do everything we can to avoid that in coming weeks.

See this speech in context