Simon Harris: Work from home to give level 3 a chance

Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science Simon Harris.  Picture: Damien Eagers/Julien Behal Photography/PA Wire

People must return to working from home to "give level 3 a fighting chance", the Higher Education Minister has said.

Simon Harris told Newstalk Breakfast that he believed Taoiseach Micheál Martin was urging people to do more when he spoke about non-compliance with the guidelines on Wednesday night.

"I don't think the Taoiseach meant it as any sort of swipe or criticism of people, I think he just meant it similar to the ways that I talked about. 

"Working from home is something that we should be doing at level 3. When I come in from Greystones on the N11 there's still a lot of cars there. And I'm wondering how many of us need to be there. 

We know that work from home is tough, but how many of us could get back to work from home, in an effort to stop having to go further? 

"We are desperately trying to stretch level 3 to maximise the benefit. To prevent having to take further measures, we have to take further measures to just give level 3 that fighting chance."

Mr Harris added that it would be "dishonest" to say that further increased restrictions are not possible, but he said that he hoped the ban on house visits would be "a gamechanger".

The Minister also said that the €250 rebate for students announced in this week's Budget would be finalised over the coming week.

Mr Harris said that he had two messages for college students. 

First that "this won't last forever" and secondly that he understands their need to see their peers but urged them to do so in small numbers.