Response to crisis has been inspiring in its resilience
THE past few days have undoubtedly been among the most stressful, scary and challenging in our nation’s history. We are all braced for a health crisis beyond any of our imagining. Schools have closed, planes are grounded, businesses are shutting down and there have already been tens of thousands of layoffs, with many more on the horizon.
At times like these, our inclination is to come together. To be physically close to the ones we love, so we can support them and they can support us. But this virus has weaponised our desire for intimacy – adding to feelings of dread, loneliness and helplessness.
Faced with these unprecedented challenges, it is natural to feel worry and fear about the future and what may come. But it is important to state that there are reasons to be hopeful.
The response of the acting Government, to date, has been hugely impressive. They have risen to the occasion and that should be acknowledged.
It can’t be easy for politicians, most of whom expected to be leaving office after the election, to suddenly find they have responsibility for managing such an existential crisis. Making the kinds of life-anddeath decisions they are now making, in a period of enormous flux and uncertainty, must be extremely difficult.
Yet they have not flinched. The communication has been excellent. They have been open with the public and have acted swiftly in a bid to mitigate the damage.
Their handling of the crisis – informed by an excellent team of healthcare experts – means the majority of us now know what is at stake, are adhering to social distancing measures and are trying to adapt to this surreal new reality.
Leo Varadkar, Simon Coveney and Simon Harris have been leading the charge, masterfully balancing two competing obligations: keeping the public accurately informed, yet simultaneously seeking to reassure.
Regina Doherty, who lost her seat at the last election but is still working tirelessly in the Department of Social Protection, also deserves special mention. Her department has already overseen the introduction of a new Covid-19 unemployment payment, which can be applied for by filling out just one page.
On Friday alone, 20,000 people applied for this new scheme and payments are being processed within 24 to 48 hours. An incredible achievement for civil servants who must be working flat-out while under huge pressure.
In the health service, 19 of 30 new test centres have now been opened, including a drive-through service at Croke Park which will operate from 8am to 8pm seven days a week and process eight tests every 15 minutes.
A new recruitment campaign for healthcare professionals and support staff has been launched, and every single newly qualified doctor in the country will be offered an internship.
Meanwhile, doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers, already in the system, are working tirelessly, many making huge sacrifices in their personal lives – like isolating themselves from their own partners and children – to do so.
All across the public service – from gardaí to first responders, bus drivers and cleaners to hospital porters – workers have been laser-focused on just one thing: doing their best to help the public in this period of unimaginable crisis. Their Trojan efforts have not gone unnoticed.
There are workers on the front line in the private sector too. Staff in pharmacies, supermarkets and indeed, hauliers and truck drivers, who have never been so busy, none of whom are complaining about their vastly increased workload.
Ordinary people across the country are also displaying the best of community spirit – setting up groups to assist those in self-isolation and crowdfunding meals to be sent to healthcare workers in hospitals.
The response, across all sectors of society, has been inspiring in its resilience, kindness and selflessness. We may be fearful and anxious, but we cannot let those feelings overwhelm us. This pandemic is going to test us, but we cannot let it crush us.
As a country, all of us must come together to fight this threat. We all have a part to play and, even if we can’t be physically close to each other, we can support each other in other ways.
Some of us will face great hardship and tragedy, others will be asked to contribute by obeying healthcare advice and remaining in isolation if suffering from symptoms. We are at the start of what could be a long road, and our resolve must not weaken, no matter what disappointments and setbacks we suffer.
While we can do much within this country to prepare for, and cope with, coronavirus, when it comes to the economic impact, we cannot go it alone. The good news is, we don’t have to.
As a member of the most powerful economic union on the planet, we need a co-ordinated response across the EU and a European Central Bank that is prepared to take extraordinary measures to save jobs and businesses.
The world is about to enter a depression more devastating than that which was experienced during the financial collapse. We need an international response of the same magnitude – one that is capable of swiftly rebuilding the wreckage that will be left in the wake of this tsunami of business collapse and unemployment.
A financial package, agreed at an EU level, that puts money back into the pockets of workers who lose their jobs needs to be urgently established. Companies, and entire sectors, will also need mammoth financial assistance.
Agreeing a basic income for those affected by this crisis would be a great start. Many workers, particularly those in precarious employment, do not have savings to sustain them through this. These are people for whom support would be limited, until the threat of coronavirus has receded and their jobs are reinstated.
The EU cannot repeat the mistakes of 2008, when austerity was the answer to financial catastrophe – a response that led to a lost decade across the continent.
We know in Ireland we have the tenacity and the resolve to tackle this crisis, but while people endure the trauma of dealing with a deadly virus and a completely alien and isolated lifestyle, they do not need the added anxiety of financial ruin.
As a small island with limited resources, our Government can only do so much. The EU must now prove the benefit of membership, to those Brexiteers who maligned it, and signal its intent to support its 27 member states with whatever financial muscle that is required to sustain them.