Seemingly responding directly to the criticism in Mark Paul's article that the failure of the government to meet its testing target is the main reason why the lockdown won't be ended on May 5th., Varadkar makes much the same point I was making in my letter drafted last night.

`I don't think we're there yet': Varadkar doubtful on lifting coronavirus restrictions

Speaking on Wednesday, Mr Varadkar said it was "totally incorrect" to say that restrictions were not yet being lifted because the testing capacity is not where it needs to be.

"In terms of testing we've done 150,000 tests already. On a per capita basis, on a per head basis, we're sixth out of 27 countries in the European Union in terms of testing. Why we are not reopening at this stage is because of the high number of people in ICU who have Covid, the fact that the number of deaths being reported every day is still very high and the fact that we're still seeing quite a lot of new cases every day," he said.

"And if it were solely a matter of testing, given that we're sixth out of 27 in the European Union, and other countries that have tested less than us are reopening, then we would be reopening."

Mr Varadkar said a number of factors had to be taken into account.

He said: "It is really not the testing - it's the deaths, it's the number of new cases, it's the number of people in ICU that is causing [Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan] and his team to tell us that at the moment anyway it is too soon, but they are going to review that on Friday.

"I don't think I'd be out of school by saying that those numbers just aren't good enough yet. Maybe it'll change significantly by Friday. But as things stand, I don't think we're there yet."

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