Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

First of all, in terms of mechanisms and so on, we have made many public statements. People have tracked the status of the virus over the last number of weeks in terms of numbers coming down. When we reopened after the first lockdown - go right through the summer into September and October - restrictions were lifted and certain things happened, notwithstanding all the dialogue in the world. All of the Deputies know this in terms of certain locations, certain events. It is not a secret how spikes happened in certain locations and how the virus went up. There is no secrecy here. I made it very clear at the beginning that we were going to level 5 and would try to exit at level 3. We will be giving the sectors proper notice in advance of an easing of the restrictions and an exiting from level 5.

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