Taoiseach doubtful restrictions will be lifted on May 5 as virus to take a 'large toll' on nursing homes

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar says that he does not know if the country can relax restrictions on May 5 and said that restrictions could be reintroduced.

The additional three weeks of movement restrictions ends at midnight that night, but speaking in the Dáil this afternoon, the Taoiseach said he wasn't certain they would be, with the process set to take months.

" I don’t know if we’ll be able to relax restrictions on May 5. But I do know that if we can at all, it’s going to be gradual and will happen over a number of months."

Mr Varadkar pointed to Asia where certain countries have seen restrictions reintroduced. He said that only a treatment or a vaccine would allow life go back to normal.

"Only a scientific breakthrough, a vaccine, or an effective anti antiviral medicine will truly allow life to go back to being as it was."

The Taoiseach said that he hoped to have a roadmap for exiting the lockdown before May 5, but that the rolling back of restrictions would rely on epidemiological data, hospital capacity and the ability of Ireland to effectively test and trace in large numbers.

Labour leader Alan Kelly asked the Taoiseach to publish the plan in the next ten days.

"People need hope. Grandparents need to know when they will be able to hug their grandchildren again," he said.

Nursing Homes

Answering questions in the chamber today, the Taoiseach said that nursing homes would "not be the forgotten frontline".

He said that the virus would "exact a large toll" on places like nursing homes, given that it has particularly harsh outcomes on those of an older age or with underlying conditions.

Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin said that he had been told of one nursing home which had been told "by the department that it should not give out information about the number of cases".

The Taoiseach was asked if he agreed with Professor Jack Lambert of the Mater and Rotunda hospitals that the situation is "a catastrophe in the making".

The Taoiseach said that the situation is a national emergency everywhere, not just in nursing homes.