Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Social democrats co-leader Catherine Murphy

This afternoon.

The Dáil, Leinster House, Dublin 2

“I think we have to continue to base our decisions on evidence but the plan, as was agreed by Government and published, is a living document.

I said from the very start, and I’ll say it again, that as things develop, elements of that plan could be accelerated, could be brought forward. But I really would ask the public and ask the House to hold firm for now.

We’re only in phase one and one of the reasons why it’s a three-week phase is so that we can have proper data. We know that, we won’t really now what effect the easing of the restrictions had for about two weeks.

So if we see that the numbers are still going very much in the right direction in the first week of June, that can give us an assurance that we could accelerate some of the things in the plan.

But before doing that, I think we’d be acting without evidence and that would be premature. So I would just ask people to hold firm until that first week in June.

And if the numbers are still going in the right direction, then we can have some confidence about bringing forward some of the things from the later phases to earlier on.”

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar under questioning from Social Democrats co-leader Catherine Murphy.

Clear?

More as we get it.

Earlier: You Won’t Lose Your Shirt