The Taoiseach has suggested that a full lockdown would not be the most effective way to tackle the coronavirus.
The government is to hold discussions with park operators today.
That comes after large numbers of people gathered in public spaces over the past weekend.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar suggests that a full lockdown is not the way the Irish government is going to approach things. Advice due from CMO tomorrow pic.twitter.com/LqMN4AAwaj
— Seán Defoe (@SeanDefoe) March 23, 2020
At the moment there's no plan for a full lockdown.
However, there will likely be further restrictions on public spaces.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said “There were scenes over the weekend of very crowded parks and very crowded public places.”
“Now in fairness to those people, I think they probably turned up not realising how crowded they were going to be – so I don’t think we should be berating people about this.
“But we have asked the Chief Medical Officer and the National Public Health Emergency Team to examine that with a view to coming up with more recommendations for Government tomorrow.”
He said a full lock-down could potentially make things worse in the long-run.
“I am minded by what Dr Mike Ryan of the WHO said over the weekend,” he said.
“What he said was that some countries are focusing a but too much on lockdown and if you have a very sharp lockdown and then reverse it, the virus might come roaring back.
“What you need is comprehensive strategy involving social distancing, testing, contact tracing and isolation of those the test positive – very much what they have done in South Korea.”
