After standing aside for experts, politicians ready to reassert role as ones who answer to the people

We are looking at another shift in that symbiotic relationship between expert advisers and political leaders.

Just cast your mind back less than a decade to the immediate fallout from the economic crash in 2008. For the ensuing five years, the nation hung on the pronouncements of economists, those gurus often dubbed the purveyors of the "dismal science".

From 2008-2013, the dismal scientists were almost 'hip' as they featured on radio, television and in the papers, telling us what we needed to do for economic redemption and whether such redemption was even possible.

Then things sloped back gradually to the realm of politics and the key politicians.

The same cycle is repeating itself now. Approaching coronavirus lockdown, it became clear the nation was in the hands of the public health experts.

Most people had never heard of Dr Holohan or many of his colleagues up to a few weeks ago. I mean, who knew Ireland had an Intensive Care Society headed by a woman with the reassuring name of Dr Catherine Motherway? Most of us know now.

The politicians were happy to get this expert back-up and they moved with alacrity to defer to the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet).

The Cabinet was grateful, notably Health Minister Simon Harris who would otherwise have been left with a high-wire act, watched by a group of party colleagues who did not envy him.

And credit where it is due, those experts - including Dr Holohan, Dr Motherway and the others - did well by Ireland as the politicians duly stood back, saying they would be led by the expert advice.

Most importantly, lives have been saved, our hospital system has not been overwhelmed, as was feared, and the spread of the virus has been curtailed.

But there has been a cost and our politicians at the coalface are being increasingly told about the other aspects of the coronavirus crisis.

The economic and social aspects are coming more and more to the fore.

While our hospital system is not overwhelmed, treatments and procedures are beginning to pile up. The healthcare system has, to a large degree, been diverted.

Our elected politicians are increasingly being asked about the loss of jobs and the prospects of people getting back to work any time soon.

There are mutterings about the mental health fallout - despite efforts by the authorities to address these issues with advice via media and public messaging.

The small, incremental changes unveiled yesterday - accompanied by the belated emergence of a roadmap for Ireland's way back to normality, along with an extension of the lockdown - put further strains on public good will and community buy-in.

These two public sentiments still remain central to making the battle against coronavirus work.

Dr Holohan and his public health experts can reasonably argue they must decide on the basis of the science alone. They can point to the continuing high instance of cases and coronavirus-related deaths.

But there was clear evidence this week the elected politicians are getting ready to assert their role as the ones who must answer to an increasingly restive people.

In the Dáil, Labour leader Alan Kelly was the most vocal in challenging the level of transparency coming from the experts.

Some of Labour's comments can be discounted as part of its need to increase its profile as it risks being marginalised by not being part of coalition-making.

But that realpolitik does not exclude comments in a similar vein coming from Sinn Féin and Fianna Fáil.

The echoes emerging from Cabinet, with some ministers expressing impatience for easing of restrictions, also tell us of pressure coming from the public on the need for change. There is a view the country cannot stay in lockdown forever.

Yet the politicians know they are in dangerous terrain. Premature changes could see a virulent second wave of the virus setting the people's sacrifices at naught.

There are also real questions about progress on adequate testing and tracing systems central to any easing of restrictions.

The Health Department has not achieved its targets here and that is an issue which will recur in public debate.

There are doubts about the supply of masks for health workers even as the Taoiseach speaks of "masks for all".