Minister was told of possible level four recommendation on Sunday

Under questioning in the Dáil, Stephen Donnelly strongly denied that he leaked a recommendation to move the country to level-five Covid restrictions, but said it had 'scared a lot of people'. Picture:Gareth Chaney/Collins

The health minister has revealed that he was warned that the National Public Health Emergency Team were considering a recommendation to move to level four ahead of their meeting on Sunday.

Under questioning in the Dáil, Stephen Donnelly strongly denied that he leaked a recommendation to move the country to level-five Covid restrictions, but said it had "scared a lot of people".

However, he admitted that he had been alerted to the fact that Nphet were looking at increasing restrictions in advance of their meeting.

Providing an account of his contact with Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan over the weekend, Mr Donnelly said he did not know who had leaked information about the Nphet recommendation.

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 call 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," he revealed.

Sinn Féin health spokesperson David Cullinane told the Dáil that this was the first time that Mr Donnelly had admitted that he had discussed the possibility of increased restrictions.

Mr Cullinane asked if the minister had told the CMO that such a move would be "unacceptable and problematic".

Mr Donnelly said he would never try to influence the decisions of Nphet.

The minister added that he was informed of the recommendation to move to level five around 7pm on Sunday.

Mr Donnelly said he did not call Dr Holohon on Saturday, as the latest Covid figures had not 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   website on Sunday, Independent TD Thomas Pringle suggested that someone in Government was the source of the leak.

"I can assure you that I did not talk to any journalists about moving to level four," said Mr Donnelly.

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.

Earlier in the day, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar said that the events of Monday, when he sharply criticised Nphet over the process by which the recommendation was made, were "a distraction".

However, he said that he had "never said a bad word" about Dr Holohan.

Mr Varadkar denied that he had heard about the potential lockdown via the media, saying that he had first heard about Nphet's recommendation when a letter was sent at 8.30pm on Sunday.

"I was informed on Saturday, as was the Taoiseach and the leader of the Green Party, that a Nphet meeting was called for Sunday," he said. "There was not a suggestion, not even an inkling, that level five was being contemplated for Sunday.

"It came out of the blue."

Sinn Féin's Pearse Doherty accused Mr Varadkar of "playing the man and not the ball", but the Tánaiste dismissed this as "trying to start the blame game".