The Secretary General at the Department of Health, Jim Breslin, is expected to warn that the acute phase of the coronavirus crisis could last for years, when he appears before the Dáil special committee on Covid-19 later this morning.
Mr Breslin will give his evidence in the first public session of this new Dáil committee at eleven o'clock this morning. His opening statement, which has been seen by RTÉ News, notes "the definite progress in getting virus levels back down through stringent public health restrictions" without which he states Ireland could have had 39,000 deaths by now.
The Secretary General observes that this progress allows "calculated risks in extending the range of activities it is permitted to undertake." However, in a