Irish people were advised to remain calm and not to change their regular shopping patterns while they take precautions around the Covid-19 pandemic.
Speaking on Friday night's Late Late Show, Conor Pope, consumer affairs correspondent for The Irish Times, said that if he could give one message to Irish people, it would be to keep calm and don't panic.
"People were feeding off each other's panic so as a result, people were buying things they didn't really need," he said. "If I have one message that I could give to viewers - and I know that never in the history of mankind has anyone ever calmed down after being told by someone else to calm down - people need to calm down."
Pope went on to say that the best action people can take is to stop shopping for the next two or three days and then from Monday, start shopping normally.
What they will see is that supermarket shelves will be well-stocked, meaning that there's no need to panic buy items.
Read: 5 tips for stocking your food cupboard - without panicking
"We have enough food on this island to feed ourselves forever. We're not going to starve," he explained. "The supply lines are good, the supermarkets can be restocked every single day. Some of the big chains, they're restocked eight times a day so people aren't going to run out of stuff".
"There was no sense of tension, no sense of aggression in any of the supermarkets I visited, but there were people being left behind. They were typically older people, they were people who were arriving in the supermarket too late and I completely understand the panic".
"It's not irrational, but it's not necessary."
