The Public Expenditure Minister says the Government has to ‘reboot’ its relationship with NPHET.
It’s after the Government rejected its advice to put the country into level five restrictions and opted for level three instead.
The Tánaiste last night made critical comments about the NPHET recommendation, claiming their advice was "not thought through".
Minister Michael McGrath this morning said it’s important that the Government and NPHET work well together.
He said: "It's been a difficult couple of days - there's no point in saying otherwise.
"We need to reboot the relationship, because the pandemic is going to be here for quite some time, unfortunately, and we're going to rely on each other to make the right decisions.
"We do listen very, very carefully to what NPHET has to say - Government by its nature has a wider set of factors to take into account."
The Government's decision to level three is expected to dominate Dáil debate today.
Sinn Féin's Mary Lou McDonald this morning said she believes the country wasn't ready for level five restrictions - but accused Leo Varadkar of 'gratuitously attacking' NPHET.
