Leo listens to ministers as Government takes back control from the experts
MICHAEL RING was late getting to the Cabinet meeting in Dublin Castle on Thursday evening. He had been caught up with work but it suited him to make a bit of an entrance.
For weeks he had been growing more and more frustrated with the impact of the Covid-19 restrictions on his constituents. He was constantly getting it in the neck from voters who were becoming increasingly angry with the State-imposed lockdown.
When he got a chance to speak he insisted it was time to reopen the entire country.
Forget about the 20km limit on non-essential travel and let people move around the country like they did before the virus took over out lives.
He pointed to other Cabinet members from rural communities including
Seán Kyne, Joe McHugh and Regina Doherty and noted issues they had raised with the restrictions. Ring said the 5km travel ban was ridiculous for rural counties and 20km wasn’t much better.
He said most people living outside of the Dublin commuter belt don’t have access to major retail outlets within 20km of their home.
The Mayo minister said people from Castlebar couldn’t even drive as far as the beach in his native Westport if the travel ban was not eased further.
In a nod to Ring’s victory, the Taoiseach used the same example when he explained his decision to allow people travel as far as they like within their own counties from Monday.
Yesterday morning after they agreed to lift the travel ban by county, ministers joked that Ring’s persistence on the issue had finally won over the Taoiseach.
However, members of the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) were scratching their heads when they saw the decisions.
Not only had they not recommended lifting travel restriction by county, they hadn’t even discussed the idea at any of their meetings this week or any other time.
They previously debated lifting all restrictions on a county-by-county basis based on the spread in individual areas but this was dismissed.
At this week’s meeting there was some discussion about recommending a time-limited travel restriction instead of the 20km ban. It would mean people could drive for a certain length of time rather than a prescribed distance. But this too was dismissed.
An Nphet source said chief medical officer Tony Holohan was keen to stick with the 20km limit set out in the roadmap for reopening the country.
“The county thing is nothing to do with Nphet and Tony was adamant it should only be 20km,” the source said. Holohan’s letter to Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Health Minister Simon Harris said as much.
The letter said the ‘stay at home’ message will be replaced with a ‘stay local’ recommendation in the second phase of the roadmap.
“The key principle and communication will ask that people ‘stay local’ and to prioritise, where possible, using their local amenities rather than travelling to other venues and locations,” it said.
“Under this approach, people can go to any location or venue that is open within
20km,” the letter added.
It wasn’t the only expert advice from Nphet which was dismissed by the Government.
Holohan’s team fully supported the reopening of large retail outlets on the condition they could adhere to social-distancing protocols.
However, they insisted it was too soon to open shopping centres over concerns it will lead to people gathering in enclosed areas.
At Thursday’s Cabinet meeting, Business Minister Heather Humphreys made a very strong case for the complete reopening of the retail sector.
She insisted now was the time to let people get back to work and allow the economy to function again.
Humphreys also insisted it would be unfair to tell businesses in shopping centres to stay closed while their competitors are free to trade just because their front door opened out on to a street.
At Cabinet, she produced a report from her department which said: “Analysis suggests that the distinctions made in the roadmap concerning size, types and compositions of retail units would benefit from a revision that emphasises the safe reopening of all retail units thereby providing clarity and predictability to business operators and their workers and customers.”
Three weeks ago, Government ministers baulked at any suggestion that they would overrule public health advice, but they have very clearly now taken back the State’s response to the virus.
The Department of Business report also insisted hotels and other forms of accommodation should be allowed to reopen at the end of this month as an attempt to salvage any remaining revenue that can be generated for the tourism industry.
And again, the Government announced it was considering moving forward plans to reopen hotels in phase three on June 29.
It also called for a review of the “implications of social distancing requirements in terms of business viability”.
Holohan said that Nphet would examine the impact of social distancing on the hospitality sector.
After months of listening to public health advice, Varadkar decided it was time to listen to his ministers. Yesterday will be seen as the day the Government took back control and the view among ministers was that this was a long time coming.
A Cabinet minster said the “ground moved” two weeks ago when Cabinet debated renewing the pandemic contract with private hospitals and the introduction of the mandatory passenger location forms for people arriving in Ireland.
“People were very against both,” the minister said. “That’s when I think the mood shifted amongst ministers and from then we are on this path,” the source said. The problem with the quarantine period for people arriving in Ireland is that it came too late.
“I think most would have liked it day one and think that it would be self-defeating now regarding signalling that we are open for business.”
This debate may be played out over the coming weeks as we near the third phase of restrictions being lifted.
The acceleration of the roadmap is not only Fine Gael ministers taking back control, they are also speaking to their traditional voter base – small to medium-seized business owners in rural communities, or anywhere else in the country. This group has silently borne a huge brunt of the pandemic and many are unlikely to recover.
However, fast-tracking easing of restriction is undoubtedly a gamble the Government is prepared to take. The Taoiseach opened his speech on moving into phase two of the roadmap by quoting the Roman philosopher Cicero. “The safety of the people shall be the highest law,” he said.
During this phase the people he is referring to are business owners.