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

I remember well that at the time the ECDC, the World Health Organization, WHO, the Chief Medical Officer, CMO, and NPHET all advised against stopping flights from Italy because that sort of action was at the time seen as being ineffective. Much has changed since then and a lot of advice has changed since then. The Deputy can go back and check over that from the press conferences etc. What we know now is that Covid-19 was present in Ireland well before that, and that someone had sadly died in Cork University hospital, CUH, many weeks before the Italian rugby match and the associated Italian flights. It is likely that Covid-19 entered Ireland in several locations at several times.

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