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

It is a fair question and I would love to be able to say here that on 1 December we will to move to level 3 or 2 and give people the ability to plan their lives and businesses, but I am not in a position to do that. This virus can change very quickly. We have seen in the course of a few days or a week the numbers increasing dramatically, and as the CMO explained at the committee the other day, it is just too far away from Christmas or from 1 December for us to be able to give a reliable indication as to what level of restrictions there will be from 1 December. The only thing worse than giving people information is to give misinformation, and if we gave people an indication now as to where we thought we might be on 1 December, there is a good chance that in two or three weeks we might have to turn around and say we cannot do that. When we do give that indication, we want it be one we can stand over, and that is probably going to be nearer to the end of November, unfortunately.

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