After the year from hell public deserve clarity not vague plans and clichés
THE last year has been nothing short of hellish and the next 12 months may not be much better. For all the talk of vaccines and an end to the never ending nightmare of Covid-19, it looks like there is a long way to go before we return to anything even approaching normality. With another two weeks of Level Five lock-down remaining – at least – many have seized on Christmas as a beacon of hope.
We all known it won’t be the same but for many the festive season is still a light at the end of the tunnel that is helping them endure the worst of the latest horrid lock-down.
Even many of those who normally find Christmas and its orgy of tacky consumerism deeply unpleasant – if not downright objectionable – are pinning their hopes on the holiday season reuniting them with relatives, friends and loved ones.
Shops, pubs and restaurants that have been ravaged by the pandemic crisis are also desperate to see a Christmas that is even remotely normal.
For many of them a Christmas boost is the only thing that will see them survive into the new year.
Given the enormous importance the people are placing on Christmas 2020 – arguably there hasn’t been a Christmas as important in generations – it is deeply disappointing that the Government seems to be paying little heed to how people are feeling.
Michael Martin’s Government has utterly failed to grasp just how important Christmas is to people. With just weeks to go until the festive season arrives, their inability to provide a straight answer on the looming holidays is not just infuriating, it is deeply insulting.
By the time Christmas Day rolls around we will have endured almost 10 months of Covid suffering. Everyone has made untold sacrifices. Thousands of us have lost loved ones. Many thousands more have lost their livelihoods. All of us have been locked away and isolated from our nearest and dearest.
The Government does acknowledge how difficult the year has been but usually in the most clichéd terms imaginable.
They know it has been hard but we’re all in it together and we must persevere. How often have you heard that line – or some similarly inane platitude – trotted out by a Minister or Civil Servant? Hundreds, probably.
Having not seen their families in months, thousands of Irish people scattered across the world are desperate to get home.
How are their very understandable fears addressed? With a ham-fisted and borderline insulting dismissal from Leo Varadkar. There were no Heaney or Lord of the Rings quotes this time, just a blunt reference to a 1967 Foot and Mouth outbreak in England.
The Tánaiste may not have meant it but the link between young emigrants and diseased cattle was what stuck.
Irish people are weary, depressed and lonely. They need hope and right now that’s in short supply. It’s high time the Government bit the bullet and provided people with some real answers and clarity about their plans for the coming weeks.
We are a resilient people and we will do what is needed but we deserve and demand honesty.