Dr Tony Holohan has broken his silence on the government's controversial claim that clothes are "non-essential" and cannot be sold at shops across the country.
Minister Damien English made the statement last night as he explained what retailers can and can't sell under Level Five restrictions.
The Minister of State for Employment Affairs and Retail Businesses was speaking on RTE's Prime Time where he defended the essential list.
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald has been among those who have criticised the decision.
She wrote on Twitter: "Clothes are essential. Common sense is also essential, though in short supply in FF/FG government."
And now Chief Medical Officer has given his views on the issue after being quizzed at a press briefing this evening.
Dr Holohan said: "You can look down to the individual rules and have discussions about the measures that are in place at that level.
"But the measures that are in place at the moment have a purpose and we are identifying what kinds of activity we need to maintain, what objectives we have as a society.
"And the decision that has been made is that things like full-time education activities for children and access to childcare for young children has a helpful effect of protecting the healthcare workforce and keeping them at work, providing healthcare services for people who need them for things other than Covid, and protecting vulnerable people.
"These are the really important activities and these are the kinds of activities that we need to maintain over these six weeks, essential activities as well as your own individual exercise or activity within a 5km radius.
"Going to shops to buy essential groceries or things like that, those are the essential activities.
"The purpose of this six-week period is for each one of us to stop doing the things we would normally do and regard that for this time period as discretionary.
"Which is not say we're evaluating a particular retail activity or sporting activity and saying that in some way does not have some sort of value, its saying that if we're going to protect those other things and maintain activity around childcare and healthcare, there are other forms of activity we need to stop for a period of time if we're going to break the chains of transmission.
"And that's the rationale, it's not that there's a value judgement being placed on one type of product or another, that's simply not the level at which this consideration arises."
