Image: Twitter/DonnellyStephenIt's after the Tánaiste said NPHET'S proposal to move to level 5 was "not thought through".
The Health Minister, Stephen Donnelly, has played down any rift between NPHET and the government over implementing Covid restrictions.
That's despite Tánaiste Leo Varadkar saying the proposals from Dr Tony Holohan were "not thought through".
Every county in Ireland will enter level three restrictions from midnight tonight.
However, they rejected the level five measures proposed by NPHET.
Minister Donnelly played down any rift between the public health officials and politicians.
''No, this hasn't damaged the relationship, we live in unprecedented times'', he said.
''And the types of decisions government has been asked to consider and the types of decisions that are being made and that we're all talking about now are unprecedented decisions.
''I would expect robust debate and interrogation''.
''We didn't feel the proposal had been thought through"
Minister Donnelly's comments come after Tánaiste appeared to criticise NPHET for giving “no suggestion” last Thursday that it would recommend the entire country should enter into Level 5 restrictions.
“What happened on Sunday night came out of the blue,” Varadkar said.
“Last Thursday, when we received our advice from NPHET, there all in writing, there was no suggestion whatsoever that they were contemplating suggesting that we move to Level 5.”
'We didn’t feel #NPHET proposal had been thought through' - Tánaiste Leo Varadkar #cblive pic.twitter.com/z8YhvYgFPS
— Claire Byrne Live (@ClaireByrneLive) October 5, 2020
He said the government sought some reassurance that these measures would achieve what NPHET wanted.
“We didn’t feel it had been thought through properly," Varadkar said.
"For example, we asked for some comfort that four weeks might be enough, given that it hasn't been enough in Melbourne and it appears it hasn't been enough in Israel.
"They weren’t able to give us that comfort,” he said.
