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Dr Tony Holohan (left) with Dr Ronan Glynn at yesterday's briefing. Sam Boal/Rollingnews.ie

Taoiseach says 'active consideration' will be given to NPHET's Level 5 advice as leaders set to meet tomorrow

The Government will now have to decide if it will accept NPHET’s recommendation.

LAST UPDATE | 16 Oct 2020

THE TAOISEACH HAS said that the government will give “active consideration” to NPHET’s advice to move the country to Level 5 for a period of six weeks.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar and Green Party leader Eamon Ryan will all meet tomorrow following NPHET’s latest advice. 

The recommendation comes less than two weeks after NPHET first recommended the move to Level 5, which the government rejected.

Speaking on Wednesday, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said that the country was not ready to move to Level 5 at that point, stating that preparations to support businesses would be required ahead of such a move. 

Martin cited the Covid Restrictions Support Scheme (CRSS) announced in the Budget and it is understood that further work is ongoing to assess the impact of a nationwide move to Level 4 or 5. 

The Taoiseach’s comments

Speaking this afternoon in Brussels, Martin said that the “serious advice” will be given “active consideration” by the party leaders.

“So we’re giving this very active consideration, the situation is very serious. And we will need further action in relation to this,” he said.

“Obviously this is very serious advice that we’ve received. It has to be considered properly. And people have to be given clear clarity around it and that’s why we are going to meet tomorrow in the first instance.”

There have been meetings this morning, the secretary general of my department and officials have been meeting the CMO to go through in more detail the advice and the modeling of NPHET.

“I agree with NPHET in terms of the priorities that we all share, in terms of protecting the vulnerable and the elderly from the coronavirus and making sure our children can continue to go to schools.”

The Taoiseach said that the Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe and Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Michael McGrath will also be part of the discussions tomorrow to consider NPHET’s advice.

We have measures in place in Ireland that many European countries, even though they higher numbers than we have, don’t have in place yet. That said, we take advice from NPHET very seriously and this is going to get very good consideration. 

“I don’t have the timeline on it but the government will have to meet and in advance of government meeting we have to have the situation well documented and well prepared.”

Minister of State Patrick O’Donovan told RTÉ’s Drivetime that the three party leaders would meet tomorrow, but said that a date for a Cabinet meeting was yet to be decided.

Level 4

Border counties Donegal, Cavan and Monaghan were moved to Level 4 this morning as part of efforts to stem the high case numbers in these counties.

Tánaiste Leo Varadkar confirmed that Cabinet would not meet today. He told reporters that a second lockdown would be more difficult than the previous shutdown, and that the public would want and expect to know an exit strategy if it was implemented.

However, work is said to be ongoing in relation to the implications of a move to Level 4 or 5 nationally.

The development comes after NPHET last night delivered a sobering assessment of the current spread of Covid-19, with Chief Medical Office Dr Tony Holohan saying the disease “was not in control”. 

The chair of NPHET’s Irish Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group Professor Philip Nolan said last night that the current trajectory of the virus increase would see 1,800-2,200 cases a day, and over 400 people with in hospital with Covid-19 by Halloween.

Professor Nolan also said that hospitalisations are “increasing exponentially, in fact, increasing exponentially faster than we projected 14 days ago”.

Today’s figures

Today, 1,000 Covid-19 cases were confirmed in Ireland, and 1,299 cases in Northern Ireland. 

Meanwhile, the national breakdown of Covid-19 incidence by local area shows that parts of Cavan and Donegal – which is now under Level 4 restrictions along with Monaghan – have the highest 14-day incidence rate per 100,000.

Ballyjamesduff’s 14-day incidence rate is 651.1 cases per 100,000. Lifford-Stranorlar, Donegal is second highest with 610.3 cases per 100,000 followed by Cork City South-Central which has 566.4 cases per 100,000. 

As of 8am today, 244 Covid-19 patients are hospitalised, of which 29 are in ICU. There have been 25 additional hospitalisations in the past 24 hours.

Sinn Féin’s position

Speaking to RTÉ’s News at One, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said the country is now in a “very dangerous and grave situation”, and urged the government to meet urgently to discuss the recommendation. 

She said that “everything needs to be on the table”, including school closures if necessary, when assessing what decisions need to be made next. 

McDonald also urged the government to restore the pandemic unemployment payment and wage subsidy schemes to their original levels, along with mortgage breaks and protections for renters.

Labour’s position

Labour leader Alan Kelly told RTÉ’s Drivetime that they would support moving the country to Level 4 for three weeks, and “another three weeks if necessary”.

Kelly also said Labour would bring in regulations on wearing masks, introduce rapid testing, put pressure on employers to bring in working from home, and implement a plan for older people in relation to social bubbles. 

“We’re not going to have in any way a normal Christmas… I believe the four issues (above) need to be dealt with by the Government, and the Government need to stick to the plan – there’s five Levels.” 

He said that Garda checkpoints at county borders were not necessary, and those resources should be redirected elsewhere. 

With reporting from Rónán Duffy, Cónal Thomas, Christina Finn

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    Mute S K
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    Sep 12th 2015, 10:03 AM

    I don’t have a problem with ads in theory as I understand that’s how we get stuff for free. The problem is when the ads are so intrusive that it makes it next to impossible to enjoy the content, then I’m going to block them. Having thirty second non skippable ads on YouTube after every second video, or ads with crazy flash videos, or articles split over multiple pages to increase advertising space drove me to install ad block.

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    Mute little jim
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    Sep 12th 2015, 10:13 AM

    Then the content is rubbish, and hence the problem.

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    Mute An Observer
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    Sep 12th 2015, 9:55 AM

    *THIS IS NOT A JOKE*

    You are the One-Hundreth-Millionth reader of

    this page. You have won an iPhone 6sPlus.

    Please clink the link below to claim your prize!

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    190
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    Mute Ciaran
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    Sep 12th 2015, 10:05 AM

    what about likes of greedy rte that we already pay TV licence put have to sit threw full screen pop up ads and about 5 ads before a program even starts!

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    Mute Darach Malone
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    Sep 12th 2015, 10:17 AM

    your TV licence fee doesn’t even begin to cover rte costs. without the ads they would be extinct.

    24
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    Mute Sean J. Troy
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    Sep 12th 2015, 11:16 AM

    The RTE and BBC license fees are very similar. The Beeb has no ads and is arguably the best content creator in the world. Yes, it has a much bigger license base. But it’s network of stations and channels both in the UK and abroad is much bigger than RTE.

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    Mute Ciarán
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    Sep 12th 2015, 1:20 PM

    The beeb also have 16 times the population to collect the licence fee from

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    Mute cooperguy
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    Sep 12th 2015, 2:53 PM

    @Sean, you have to be joking! The BBC license fee is massively more revenue than what RTE get. If you want an ad free rte you would need need a massive license fee increase.

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    Mute Sean Oige
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    Sep 12th 2015, 5:21 PM

    They should get rid of the ads so! RTE an absolute waste of money….

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    Mute cooperguy
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    Sep 12th 2015, 6:11 PM

    why exactly, their viewing numbers says different. Your not supposed to like everything they do. that’s the point of public broadcasting, not everything has to appeal to a mass market

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    Mute Fergus O'Neill
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    Sep 12th 2015, 10:18 AM

    I’ve had just over 200,000 ads blocked in just over a year. 200,000 – there’s your reason for installing a blocker.

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    Mute Mark Malone
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    Sep 12th 2015, 12:28 PM

    156,742 for me in around the same length of time. Ludicrous amount.

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    Mute Thomas Mac
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    Sep 12th 2015, 9:59 AM

    I wouldn’t be able to watch my favourite online sports channel only for adblocker plus .

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    Mute Enda O Brien
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    Sep 12th 2015, 9:49 AM

    No problem with subscription models i have a few but you would want to be providing a good service.

    48
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    Mute Ciarán
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    Sep 12th 2015, 10:00 AM

    The take a whitelist approach, an adblocker can be quite useful for security reasons browsing websites you’re in familiar with. However websites I visit frequently will get whitelisted as long as there are no autoplay video ads. More broadly the issue is very similar to that of music, film and game piracy. A generation of people now seem to find the idea of artists and writers being paid for the content they produce completly alien. They also refuse to acknowledge this act as stealing

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    Mute Enda O Brien
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    Sep 12th 2015, 10:02 AM

    Honestly the way the music industry was so explotive of people when the likes of napster did not exist was the reason noone had a problem with using the likes of napster.

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    Mute Ciarán
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    Sep 12th 2015, 11:29 AM

    I’m not old enough to have been exploited by the music industry pre Napster I wasnt even ten when they got sued and there are people only about 5 or years younger than me who have never paid for music in their lives

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    Mute Sean McGovern
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    Sep 12th 2015, 10:07 AM

    I stopped using Vodafone because of the amount of ads they force you to watch on YouTube and other web sites.

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    Mute Andy Cahalan
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    Sep 12th 2015, 11:27 AM

    What did I just read?

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    Mute Sean J. Troy
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    Sep 12th 2015, 11:10 AM

    I don’t mind ads. I do mind bad, poorly targeted ads. I would have thought in 2015 the might of Google would have figured out that making me sit through a few seconds of advertising to watch a ten second cat video is stupid. Especially when they’ve been collecting data on me for years and haven’t figured out that maybe an ad for L’Oréal shampoo is probably the wrong product to target me with. Some of the American services are the worst though. They put ads in services that you actually pay for like NFL and MLB live streaming and then the ads are exclusively targeted at American audiences. Absolutely pointless.

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    Mute Rochelle
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    Sep 12th 2015, 11:29 AM

    I’m entirely fine with web based businesses failing to succeed and the internet going back to being mainly driven by hobbyists. Those motivated by passion and interest rather than monetary gain.

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    Mute Search Eagle
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    Sep 13th 2015, 10:12 AM

    “Passion” doesn’t cover the massive costs required to host the videos you enjoy. An awful lot of hobbyist content relies on tools that are made free by advertising revenue.

    But I am also fine with web-based businesses failing because people won’t click their ads. However, the internet won’t change into the passion and interest haven you seek, instead people with the resources and money will consolidate their control by introducing other paid models. See, for example: blip which deleted the videos and kicked out all its hobbyist content creators to focus on its 4000 stronger more commercially lucrative partners.

    There’s also nothing wrong with seeking monetary gain for doing something you enjoy. Why should the people who produce the content you consume be required to do so for free?

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    Mute Michael Fallon
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    Sep 12th 2015, 9:55 AM

    Is there an adblock for ipads and where can I get it?

    19
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    Mute David Ronan
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    Sep 12th 2015, 10:05 AM

    Use this, great for blocking all ads on all devices connected to your network, small bit of DIY involved but worth it http://lifehacker.com/turn-a-raspberry-pi-into-an-ad-blocker-with-a-single-co-1686093533

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    Mute Life in no motion
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    Sep 12th 2015, 11:21 AM

    Block Party was working for me on ios 9 beta

    Used it on the indo site. I’ve a 6+ and the poxy ad for Ribena takes up almost all the page

    Ridonculous

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    Mute Michael Sands
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    Sep 12th 2015, 12:22 PM

    I’m sick of adverts everywhere… Next toilet paper unless you use newspapers?

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    Mute Paul Murphy
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    Sep 12th 2015, 3:11 PM

    Ads are great as long as they stay in one place, don’t make any noise (unless I click on them), don’t slow down the website and don’t try to install stuff on my computer/phone/whatever.

    Otherwise yer blocked.

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    Mute Andrew McCarthy
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    Sep 12th 2015, 2:08 PM

    Worse than the distraction and delays, there’s the growing problem of malvertising — ads that are actually malicious content that can infect your browser/PC/phone without any interaction from you. Blocking flash helps a bit, but really I’ve found blocking all ads best.

    Take a look at https://blog.malwarebytes.org/malvertising-2/ for some of the most recent ones including major sites like Yahoo and MSN. Worth the risk?

    8
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    Mute Gusty McBlow
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    Sep 12th 2015, 12:50 PM

    Hosts File!

    That is all.

    6
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    Mute Jim Nielsen
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    Sep 12th 2015, 4:35 PM

    entirely agree – in my case it stops 99% of adverts and it’s a small matter to add new hosts entries when needed. the only drawback with the hosts file approach is when add sites are using https://…/ as i have seen happening with mrgreen betting and a couple more..

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    Mute Pete Gibson
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    Sep 12th 2015, 3:39 PM

    It’s called “click-bait”.
    Just below this very article were:
    12 frightening facts your pilot will never tell you.
    23 facts about left-handed people.
    and surprise surprise…
    50 of the funniest cats.

    6
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    Mute Kane Abel
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    Sep 12th 2015, 9:58 AM

    Dumb logo – Really looks like AdRoil….(?) I predict failure….

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    Mute ScewMadd
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    Sep 13th 2015, 2:00 PM

    This ad reminds me of this cringey video.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67ZZUSpeS4k

    1
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