Covid-19: Statements
Dail Éireann — 2020-10-08
============================================================

Stephen Donnelly (FF), Wicklow

I do not know who leaked a letter. I do not know who it was leaked to. The Deputy says it was leaked that night. Perhaps it was. What I know is that RTÉ reported about level 5 on the news at 9 p.m. I do not think it got into detail as to what was in the letter so I do not know if RTÉ had the letter. It is possible that RTÉ was simply told that it was level 5. Remember that we strive to publish these letters as quickly as possible. I have in my bag this evening's letter from the Chief Medical Officer. He and I met before the session this evening, after NPHET met. We discussed what was in the letter. I will, as the Department always does, endeavour to put that letter online and to share it with colleagues as quickly as possible. For what it is worth, I agree that information coming out in an uncontrolled way about a recommendation to move to level 5 scared many people, and I was frustrated to see it happen.

---

Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2020-10-08/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:48:40+00:00
Sitting date: 2020-10-08