Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I have a substantive question but I am somewhat perplexed by the Minister's apparent lack of understanding of exactly what happened across families and communities from Sunday night until Monday night after the news broke at 9 p.m. that NPHET proposed to move to level 5. The reaction, the briefing against NPHET that culminated in the outright attack on it by the Tánaiste on Monday night, created a level of anxiety, frustration and concern that we have not seen since the initial outbreak of the virus. That is why the questions are being put to the Minister by Members because Deputies have been getting those questions from constituents all week. For the Minister to diminish or belittle that or to besmirch the motives of anyone who asks about it is unbecoming of him.

The Minister has answered many questions, in fairness, so I just seek one clarification. The Minister said that following his conversation with the CMO on Sunday morning, where he suggested that there might be mention of level 4, he spoke to the Taoiseach. Am I correct that the Minister conveyed the information to the Taoiseach that NPHET was considering an escalation of the levels up to or including level 4? According to a recent tweet from an Irish Independent journalist, the Taoiseach's spokesperson told the paper yesterday that the Taoiseach did not know that the NPHET meeting on Sunday was about changing levels until afterwards.

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