State’s Covid restrictions were more lax than public wanted, ESRI says

‘Overwhelming majority’ supported public health guidelines and ‘most would have preferred them to be more not less restrictive’

Pete Lunn, head of the ESRI’s behavioral research unit, wrote that the proportion of people who thought the state’s response was too extreme never climbed above 10 per cent in 2020. Picture: Getty

Covid-19 restrictions introduced by the state during the pandemic were less, not more, restrictive than the public wanted, according to the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).

Pete Lunn, head of the ESRI’s behavioral research unit, told an Oireachtas committee today that most people wanted a “less liberal” easing of restrictions than the government implemented at Christmas, a period of social mixing followed by a huge surge in case numbers and deaths early this year.