Professor Anthony Staines has said that he's not overly concerned by the scenes of crowds gathering in Dublin's city centre over the weekend.
During an appearance on Claire Byrne Live, the Professor of Health Systems said: "The evidence of this is extraordinarily clear. It is much more dangerous to be with other people indoors than outdoors. The outdoors are not 100% safe, you could be unlucky and people should probably wear masks outdoors. But I think we also have to be realistic.
"Nphet have been saying - and correctly by the way - that we should have an outdoor summer. The Tanaiste and Taoiseach have said it too and I absolutely agree, because the risk of infection is enormously lower outdoors. And that's just the nature of it."
When asked about his fears of a potential spike in cases from gathering like the ones over the weekend in Dublin, Cork and Galway, Professor Staines said "not from that, no," however, he did express concerns about the Indian variant.
He added: "I expect to see rising cases for other reasons because we're getting new variants from India circulating in this country. And we're watching what's happening in the UK right now- their case numbers are starting to rise in some places quite sharply, and there's obviously the risk that will happen here. But that's not being driven by teenagers who standing around on the streets chatting to their friends."
On Monday evening, Dublin City Council confirmed that they will 'take some actions that will improve the situation' in the city and Professor Staines was critical of their approach to providing more bins and toilets for public use.
"There's a whole other set of issues about making Dublin a liveable city. The answer to the question 'Who is in charge of this?' is Owen Keegan. The council officials are in charge of this, councillors have extraordinary little power in Ireland."
Mr Staines also urged Dublin City Council to "spread out" the facilities that they're set to provide.
He said: "At the moment, they've closed the canals, they've closed the open area in Portobello and they're pushing people into the city centre. I live out in Skerries in North County Dublin with beautiful beaches. Fingal County Council provide bins on the beaches and largely, they're used."
While largely striking an optimistic tone about public gatherings and meetings, Professor Staines did express concerns that international travel will resume almost at the same time as indoor dining.
Adding: "I think both happening together is a challenge. At the moment because of this awful ransomware attack, the information systems we use to monitor what's going on are working poorly or very slowly. That's a real problem, we're essentially flying blind.
"We know we've had high case numbers - very steady and high case numbers - for over a month. So whatever we're doing is not bringing those case numbers down and we are seriously worried that he could have a substantial rise in case numbers. Most of the most vulnerable people are vaccinated - so we don't expect that to translate into anything like we had in the beginning with the pandemic - but it's still a significant number of sick people."
Following this segment, plenty of viewers were impressed by Professor Staines' interview.
"Anthony Staines just summing it up there on Claire Byrne about making Dublin a liveable city," "Prof Anthony Staines talking sense on CB live. Closing public spaces is not managing them. The buck stops with the county manager. What is the point of having public bodies if they don’t manage public spaces. The outdoor summer has been flagged for months" were two comments made by viewers.
Elsewhere, another viewer remarked: "Isn’t it amazing when someone talks Science - Thank you Anthony Staines."
