DR TONY HOLOHAN has hit out at Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary and rubbished his claims that Irish folk will be able to freely take summer holidays from July.
Ireland's Chief Medical Officer (CMO) criticised O'Leary for pushing misinformation on the public.
On Monday morning, Mr O'Leary appeared on several breakfast radio shows launching a scathing attack on NPHET, accusing them of scaremongering.
He also claimed that come July, millions of people will be able to take summer holidays, because enough vulnerable people will have been vaccinated by then.
However, speaking at a Department of Health press conference on Monday evening, Dr Holohan dashed any hopes the public may have had of jetting off to sunny beach somewhere this summer, saying that it's "not realistic" to expect such a reality.
"I don't think we're headed to a summer where we can expect millions of people from this part of the world, from Europe, to be heading to beaches, other than in their own localities," the CMO said.
"I think, unfortunately, the situation we find ourselves in now as a country, we have to focus on getting the vulnerable people in the first instance vaccinated.
"We have driven down community transmission across the whole of the population and we have put in place the measures the Government put in place last week in regards to travel.
"It's a recommendation against all forms of non-essential travel.
"I don't think it's realistic for us to foresee a situation where, in the summertime, we will see a summer that is characterised by the kinds of things that we would all like to be in a position to do, which would be to fly off to other parts of Europe and the world for our summer holidays.
"I just don't think that's realistic."
