Revealed: civil servant queried reopening delay
Mandarin warned of long-term damage caused by shutdown
ONE of the country’s most senior civil servants repeatedly warned that the roadmap for reopening Ireland was too slow and questioned the rationale behind the nationwide lockdown earlier this year, the Sunday Independent can reveal.
In emails to senior colleagues, Robert Watt, secretary general at the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, argued shops and some bars and restaurants should have reopened weeks earlier than they did, and warned of the long-term economic damage caused by the shutdown of the country.
Emails obtained by this newspaper reveal the internal debate between senior civil servants including Mr Watt, the State’s top civil servant Martin Fraser and other secretaries general across key Government departments who were responsible for responding to the public health and economic crisis.
The emails show that Department of Business secretary general Orlaigh Quinn was concerned the €350 pandemic unemployment payment would incentivise people to quit their jobs. Mr Watt also queried whether some industries should be nationalised and suggested the VHI’s income from health insurance premiums be used to pay for the use of private hospitals during the pandemic.
In the email correspondence, Mr Watt emerges as a strong critic of the country being shut down for so long, asking for the evidence for maintaining the shutdown, as well as suggesting it was more dangerous to reopen some shops and not others, and questioning why Ireland was slower to reopen than other European countries.
In an email on May 25, Mr Watt expressed concern at the small drop in numbers on the Pandemic Unemployment Payment, which at that stage was being claimed by just under 580,000 people who were out of work.
“The fiscal costs are mounting weekly and the long-term damage to the economy will be significant if we continue with this approach to the social restrictions,” he wrote.
“We have got to accelerate this roadmap. It is too slow, given the number of cases we have, the lessons we are learning from other countries and the enormous damage being done to the country. Most retail shops should be opening this week — it makes no sense that I can go to Woodies and not to Ikea or Arnotts. It could be argued that the approach is more dangerous given the crowds turning up at a limited number of retail outlets. Next week restaurants, bar and coffee shops with outdoor facilities should be open. The current restrictions have no sound policy basis. I also fear that people will start ignoring even the basic public health advice, given the erosion of support for the current approach.”
Mr Watt’s views were addressed to Mr Fraser, Dr Quinn and Department of Finance secretary general Derek Moran.
Mr Watt’s email came at a time when the number of new cases in Ireland was falling, the virus had been “effectively extinguished from the community”, according to chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan and on the same day that no new deaths were reported in the State for the first time in two months. Most but not all retailers did not reopen until June 8 while restaurants and pubs that serve food were not reopened until June 29.
The emails, released under Freedom of Information, cover the period between March of this year, when the first public health restrictions were introduced, and early June when the country had started to reopen again.
Mr Watt emailed Mr Fraser again as well as Department of Health secretary general Jim Breslin on June 3 with a copy of a Davy Research note on the Irish economy which, he said, showed Ireland “has the slowest recovery from the lockdown of all the countries surveyed”. Mr Watt said that Ireland is “projected to be four to six weeks behind other countries, I would be interested in seeing the rationale behind this?” He had previously suggested in an email to Mr Fraser, Dr Quinn, and Department of Transport secretary general Graham Doyle on May 20 that the roadmap was “about six-eight weeks behind the average of European countries”.
He added: “Have not seen any assessment which justifies this delay… as bankruptcies rise and businesses continue to fail, it will be hard to explain why Ireland is different.”
Nine days earlier, on May 11, Mr Watt wrote to Mr Fraser about the Government plan to reopen the country and the economic analyses his Department was carrying out into the impact of the lockdown. “You know our view that previous decisions were taken with too narrow a perspective and that wider economic and social factors need to be considered,”. he wrote.
In a series of emails on March 25, Mr Watt asked Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe and DPER officials for their views on what further State support could be provided for people’s incomes and jobs and what demands the Government was likely to receive to support companies and specific sectors.
Mr Watt circulated the email to other secretaries general, prompting a reply from Mr Doyle in the Department of Transport, who said the possible need for some State invention in the air cargo industry could not be excluded and that there could be a “relatively early solvency issue” with Bus Éireann. Mr Watt responded that the key issue was “we represent the taxpayer and public — no open-ended bailouts or guarantees for shareholders or bondholders this time !!!! ”
In response to an email from Mr Fraser, Mr Watt wrote that supply chain industries would need specific support from the Government, saying: “There are dozens of other entities lining up — non-essential probably in many cases. We are drafting a framework or else Dept X will press for a stupid deal behind the scrum and that will be the benchmark. We then have chaos. In a different context, the ‘deal’ on childcare is an example of what happens.”
This is believed to be a reference to a deal struck with childcare providers that ensured all staff were paid their full wages while their facilities were closed.