It is the Government’s intention to share the plan around the easing of COVID-19 measures with the public on Friday, an Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said.

An Taosieach was speaking in response to a question in Dáil Éireann from Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald on Thursday around sharing the road map out of the current measures.

“Our intention is to share that with the public tomorrow, subject to a NPHET [National Public Health Emergency Team] meeting in the morning and a cabinet meeting the afternoon, it’s not entirely under my control,” he said.

Plan

"People have a right to know when things will start going back to normal. I can inform the Dáil that a plan is being developed to ease the lockdown, a roadmap to reopen Ireland. A roadmap to what will be a new normal.

"Unfortunately, for those who would like an immediate return to a pre-COVID world, the easement of the current restrictions will be slow and gradual and will be done in a stepwise, tiered manner. It will require a continuous effort to suppress and control this virus.

"Therefore, the lifting of restrictions will not necessarily mirror the manner in which they were escalated.

"Any changes to the restrictions will be made every two to four weeks, as we need to leave a period of time to accurately assess their impact. We will intervene earlier if necessary. Restrictions may have to be reintroduced if it looks like the virus is going to surge back," he said.

Danger

“It’s now seven weeks since I announced the first actions to slow the virus in its tracks. We’re not out of danger yet, more lives are at risk and we cannot falter now.”

The Government is working on a pathway on how the country can emerge from the coronavirus crisis, he said, adding that we are still in the tunnel and we have some distance to go.

McDonald said that the “right model and approach was adopted in response to this public health emergency” and said credit is due to everybody.

“We’ve made extraordinary asks of people,” she said and that in future “we have to at a minimum give them the respect of clear information”.

Threat

Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin said that no one believes that the threat of the pandemic is gone and no one expects a rapid easing of measures.

“There is deep unease on the lack of clarity on what the next steps are.

“At a minimum, Irish people need to be given clarity on the exact basis that changes will be made,” he said, adding that sectors need to be given the opportunity to propose actions in which they can operate within new guidelines.

Martin also called for an assessment of the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

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