The Irish are proably hospitalising too many people (by continental standards), presumably because they can... so far.

In France, 10k hospitalised out of 25k tested positive, but you pretty much have to be symptomatic to get tested (and even then, they will tell you there's no point in testing). Of the 10k, 2500 in intensive care, and 1300 dead... very high death rate, very comparable to the Netherlands... but the base line for number of cases is not comparable with Ireland, where testing has been much more  widespread.

The differential in death rate will likely start to show up soon, between the countries in lockdown and the others.

Or not. Perhaps Rutte (and Boris, and the Swedes) are right...

_{It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue - Queen Elizabeth II}