New medical advice suggests TDs can't spend longer than two hours in a day inside the Dáil chamber during the coronavirus crisis.
The COVID-19 committee has been given the advice, which says that if someone spends more than two hours in an enclosed space with someone they are considered a contact for public health purposes.
Members of the committee were told that would be the case even with reduced numbers in the Dáil chamber.
So if 20 TDs spent three hours meeting in the Dáil and one of them developed symptoms over the next two days, all 20 would have to self-isolate for two weeks.
It would mean no TD could be in the chamber for more than two hours in a day - which poses headaches for how ministerial or Taoiseach's questions would work, and how the Ceann Comhairle would operate.
However, it also poses the question: if that is the advice for the enclosed chamber of the Dáil, why isn't it the advice for shops or other workplaces?
The COVID-19 committee will consider the advice at a teleconference meeting tomorrow.
The first full sitting of the committee today has heard from officials including Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan and HSE CEO Paul Reid.
