Waterford's Minister of State says she understands why changes to the vaccine rollout programme weren't included in NPHET's modeling.
Mary Butler was one of those who attended a two-hour meeting with the Chief Medical Officer yesterday over the Delta variant.
She says the modeling couldn't take into account changes regarding the use of the Johnson and Johnson and AstraZeneca vaccines in under-40s, because that still hasn't been signed off on:
"That has to go to the Minister, the Minister has to sign off and it goes to the HSE. So, because that wasn't done - and it still hasn't been done - that wasn't included in the modeling.
"But vaccination in general is included. So, what Tony Holohan told us yesterday is that we need to get to 80%, which will buy us herd immunity. Currently 43% of all adults in the country are fully vaccinated and 66% of adults have one vaccine."
Junior Minister Butler says she was frightened by what she heard from the CMO during that meeting yesterday, in terms of how transmissible the variant is and how dangerous it really is to people.
She says now is not the time for any of us to become complacent:
"What I heard yesterday, I have to say, has really, really frightened me. The Delta variant is much more severe and much more dangerous than anything we have seen yet and we are now facing a race; the vaccine versus the virus.
"... Yesterday in Scotland they had 3,900 cases and the Taoiseach spoke to Nicola Sturgeon and she said she is afraid that it's going to rip through the unvaccinated. So, our focus has to move now very, very quickly to make sure that we get as many people vaccinated as possible."
Continuing, the Minister of State for Older People said the entire meeting yesterday was sobering and stark.
And she told Damien Tiernan on Déise Today that foreign travel and indoor dining were also discussed:
"For example, in Portugal last night, there are now restrictions on indoor dining. So, the UK, Portugal and Spain are now seeing a spike and I see a lot of people have texted that they're not going to holiday in Ireland, they're going to go to the UK. The two highest risks that we have at the moment, according to the CMO, are international travel and indoor socialisation - especially for those who are not vaccinated."
