Minister breaks ranks and calls for social distancing rules to be relaxed

A sitting government minister has said he is “baffled” as to why the Government has not moved to reduce the social distance rules from 2 metres to 1 metre, as recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Breaking ranks with his own government, Junior Skills Minister John Halligan has made his concerns known to Taoiseach Leo Varadkar about the hard-line stance taken on social distancing at the insistence of the Chief Medical Officer, Dr Tony Holohan.