1. It frustrates me when I hear criticism of the measures that NPHET suggest, especially from elected representatives, stating that they are out of line with the rest of Europe or are harsher and more prolonged than those being brought in by our European colleagues .

2. The reason that we have to take harsher measures than our EU colleagues is because our health system is out of line with that of the rest of Europe. We have no capacity whatsoever to deal with any increased demand or pressure placed on the health system. None at all.

3. We see year on year when the health service comes under pressure from the flu we have hundreds of people on trolleys, operations cancelled and the whole system grinds to a halt.

No where else in Europe does this happened, as they have extra capacity built into the system.

4. To put figures on it, we have 1/5 of the number of ICU beds per capita as Germany , the lowest number of consultants in the OECD + the worst waiting lists in the EU. NPHET take this into consideration when they are making their recommendations. We cannot afford a second wave

5.What would be most helpful is if the disgruntled public representatives channeled their energies into securing the health service the funding it needs to be able to, not only deal with this pandemic, but the fallout we will see in the health service when this pandemic is over

6. We have to take more restrictive measures,than any of our EU colleagues because we are starting from such a poor base,with no capacity in our health service. Don't blame NPHET, blame the decades of underfunding of our health service. Get behind NPHET. They know what they're at