Shut it down NOW, says Mary Lou, any delay will cost lives
MARY Lou McDonald has called for a complete ‘shutdown’ off all non-essential shops and services, saying any further ‘delay will cost lives’.
The Sinn Féin leader said that the images of crowded public spaces, across the country, at the weekend were ‘concerning’.
Physical distancing needs to be championed by every arm of the State, she said. And the Government must start by closing down all ‘non-essential’ business, she added.
‘Delay costs lives, that’s the lesson from other countries, we should not drag our heels now. Now is the moment to take the next step and that, in my strong view, is to close all non-essential business.
‘I think it’s obvious now, at this stage, where the emergency measures to protect people need to be stepped up very significantly. We believe we are at a point now where we need to move to the shutdown of all non-essential business.’ Grocery stores, pharmacies and all blue light services should stay open, she said. And so should takeaways and restaurants that have been innovative and have ensured physical distancing.
Ms McDonald acknowledged that this would lead to further job losses and temporary redundancies and said it would have to be countered by a proper income support scheme urgently.
‘We need to do everything that we can to keep people safe,’ she said.
‘It’s unacceptable that working people be left with so much risk… it’s simply not possible in so many cases to practice safe physical distancing.’
When asked if her calls amounted to disputing with the State’s medical efforts, given that the Government had so-far accepted all of the recommendations by the National
Public Health Emergency Team, Ms McDonald said that some of the decisions that would have to be taken now were ‘political’.
She said: ‘I’m not actually disputing, I’m absolutely accepting the medical scientific advice, which is that hygiene measures have to be adhered to, that physical distancing is core to our strategy to slowing [this] down and flattening the curve, every medical expert has said that out loud. I am saying, as a political leader who represents many, many people who go to work now and work in unsafe conditions, that that needs to stop.’
She said the Emergency Team would be meeting today, and she was going into a meeting to ‘put it to the Taoiseach and the members of that committee that this is a call that has to be made speedily’.
‘Many decisions that need to be made, in the final analysis, are political calls, they are not simply calls for doctors. It is an all-of-society crisis and we need leadership now and people are very anxious that they find themselves in workplaces that simply aren’t safe.’
The Taoiseach said any further restrictions would be based on medical advice and not on political or social media pressure.
‘If they [the Emergency Team] recommend further restrictions, we will implement those further restrictions. But you know, I should say that any decision was made on further restrictions isn’t going to be made because of what’s trending on Twitter, or because of populism or political pressure.
‘It will be made on the advice of the Chief Medical Officer, and his team of expert public health doctors and biologists, immunologists and that’s as it should be,’ he said.
‘Unacceptable that people are at risk’