Stephen Donnelly denies leaking level 5 Nphet recommendation

Stephen Donnelly: "I can assure you that I did not talk to any journalists about moving to level 4."

The Health Minister has strongly denied that he leaked a recommendation to move the country to level 5 Covid restrictions.

Speaking in the Dáil Stephen Donnelly said the Government has followed "much" of the advice provided by the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) but said they did not believe the criteria to move to a lockdown had been met when it was recommended on Sunday night.

Providing a detailed account of his contact with the Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan over the weekend, Mr Donnelly said he didn't know who had leaked information from the Nphet meeting but said it had "scared a lot of people".

Mr Donnelly said he received a text from Dr Holohan around lunchtime on Saturday, informing him that Nphet would meet the following day.

Mr Donnelly sent a text to the Taoiseach to inform him but did not ring Dr Holohon about the matter on Saturday. Instead he waited until Sunday morning.

We discussed the current situation, and the possibility to move to level four.

The Minister added: "Around 7pm, I took part in a video call with the chief medical officer, the deputy chief medical officer and the secretary general, and that is when I was informed of this recommendation to move to level 5."

Mr Donnelly said he did not speak to Mr Holohon on Saturday as the latest Covid figures hadn't been released at lunchtime when the text was received and it was "better off waiting until he had as much information as possible".

Citing an article which appeared on the Irish Examiner website on Sunday, Independent TD Thomas Pringle said it seemed as if the leaks had come from the Government.

"I can assure you that I did not talk to any journalists about moving to level 4," Mr Donnelly said. But he added: "People leak".

Mr Pringle said it was "important" to stress that only some people leak.

Labour TD Duncan Smith described this week as "another episode of absolute calamity" for the Government.