‘Lockdowns doing lasting damage’
THE Government’s policy of rolling lockdowns and a lack of risk assessments of its pandemic policies will inflict ‘lasting damage’ on the Irish economy, an economist has warned.
This comes as Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe revealed on Wednesday that the pandemic will have added €35 billion to the national debt by the end of this year. He is expecting the country to run a deficit of €17billion this year, adding to the €18.5billion deficit from last year.
In a report to be published today, economist Jim Power states: ‘It is worth asking if the cure might actually be worse than the disease.’
Mr Power argues NPHET was set up as a short-term emergency response team to deal with the virus and it was never intended as a long-term strategy unit. He said the decision by the Government to listen to NPHET on restrictions without apparently considering the broader impact on the economy will have long-term implications. ‘The notion that life can return to normal, that the shut-down businesses will suddenly come back to life; and that Ireland’s international connectivity will return to pre-Covid normality when the restrictions are eventually lifted would appear to be naïve in the extreme,’ he said.
Mr Power said Ireland was an ‘outlier’ in terms of its ‘scorched earth policies of rolling lockdowns’ which is now among the longest worldwide.
He said no attempt had been made to carry out a cost/benefit analysis on imposition of severe restrictions and no one from a business background had been appointed to NPHET.
He also said the Government has failed to put in place proper test and trace or utilise rapid antigen testing.
According to Mr Power’s analysis, Ireland is projected to have a national debt of €239billion by the end of this year up from €204.2 billion at the end of 2019. He said there was a loss in output of €15 billion last year.
Mr Power claims that despite financial assistance from the Government, many smaller businesses will struggle to survive once they open again.