Gene Kerrigan

In this carnage, politics goes on as before

WELL, that’s put yer man Holohan back in his box, wha’? Get up the yard, Tony, we’re not having some baldy bugger with a medical degree making Cabinet members look like they’re not up to the job.

In recent days, the politicians desperately needed to be seen to kick ass...

Sorry, I’ll reword that. In recent days, the politicians desperately needed to reassert their authority, in the interests of democracy and accountability.

It built slowly, then the knife went in, very fast.

And all through it, the politicians played the media the way Clapton plays the guitar.

“Sources” were leaking like one of those houses thrown up at the fag end of the Celtic Bubble.

And the Taoiseach, for the second week running, was mainlining photo ops.

Last Thursday, the politicians let it be known that Holohan and his National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) needed to be put in their place.

On Friday, in a deft series of moves, the Taoiseach and his team took the medics down.

It was a bit like watching Roy Keane go in kneehigh on Alf-Inge Haaland. Effective, painful and terribly public.

The minor adjustments to the Covid-19 restrictions are not a big deal. And the “roadmap” to “normality” is tentative, and based on the work of Nphet. It can be changed or even scrapped entirely, if Nphet decides that’s necessary for public health reasons.

The responsibilities haven’t changed, but perception has been adjusted to enhance the Cabinet’s image, and to push the Taoiseach front and centre.

We can expect Holohan to shrug it off — the work Nphet is doing is too important to care about the matters of image that preoccupy TDs.

Legitimate questions have been asked about Nphet. It’s obviously necessary that a body with such powers should be accountable. It was, of course, the job of the politicians to make it so. They failed.

In matters of health (among others), the ham-fisted failures of the politicians were obvious.

In March, for instance, it was 14 years since the A&E chaos was officially dubbed a “national emergency”, and they still hadn’t figured out why people were lying on trolleys for days.

(Maybe it’s because FF and FG cut thousands of beds — just a thought.)

As the coronavirus approached, we were grateful that Nphet took on the job of protecting us — about three dozen experts in epidemiology, virology and associated matters, in a team chaired by Chief Medical Officer Tony Holohan.

They’re specialists, steeped in information about epidemics. They weigh up huge amounts of data, then make scary decisions. They know they can’t always get things right. They know the consequences of getting things wrong.

Accepting World Health Organisation guidance, Nphet oversaw the measures required to implement the WHO principles of fighting a pandemic. The politicians deferred to Nphet. They also ably explained to the rest of us the policies of delay, contain and mitigate.

They imported the brilliant “flatten the curve” images and the vast majority of us cooperated.

The medical preparations held up against Covid-19’s assault. And the strategy succeeded so far.

There were massive failures — such as the nursing homes disaster, and the response of throwing HSE staff into the breach, without proper PPE. The Direct Provision chaos — always a scandal — had by now become a frightening failure to protect public health.

All this will need accounting for.

And the failure to prepare for a crisis the politicians knew could strike at any time. They waited until the house went on fire, then they started building a fire station and putting out tenders for fire brigades.

Last Monday evening, Claire Byrne Live revealed a poll in which 79pc said they remained compliant with Nphet’s strategy. And only 17pc were flagging.

The poll asked if

Nphet should loosen the restrictions. Only 33pc said yes, and 47pc said no.

The people have patience. The following day, though, we were hearing mostly about the people who wanted to get out and about.

TDs were annoyed.

Some of their constituents were complaining that their businesses should be deemed essential. They wanted exceptions made for their sport. They were worried about the economy.

Politicians found themselves trying to dampen expectation which they had created, with nods and winks.

The words “loosen the restrictions” summed up the message. You could see that as a cry for freedom, or as an irresponsible response to necessary measures in terribly dangerous circumstances.

Under cover of the “accountability” trope, the cry of liberation went up — “I want to go shopping!”

Graduates of the Twitter University of Epidemiology explained how the “unelected” experts know nothing. Columnists had a feeling that despite the poll figures, and squeamish people like Tony Holohan, their readers would gladly sacrifice the lungs of the occasional pensioner if it meant they could try on a new outfit in BT.

Last Thursday, Holohan had to spend two hours with Government ministers, explaining the basis for Nphet’s recommendations.

The ministers went outside and some of them told the political reporters how they’d gone head to head with the devilish dictator. The ministers, they said, had given Nphet some “push back”. One complained that Holohan was regarded as a “bit of a God”.

Among those reported to be “pushing back” was Finian McGrath. I voted for him, when he was first elected. He is, I still believe, a decent person concerned with the interests of others.

Four years ago, he raised the HPV vaccine five times in the Dail — once demanding that the Minister for Health “remove the vaccine as a matter of priority”. There is no container on the planet large enough to hold the totality of my indifference to Finian McGrath’s views on anything medical.

But, our Taoiseach is sensitive. Unease in the ranks had to be responded to.

Nphet is aware of the mental health consequences of a lockdown, and the economic damage. It met on Friday morning to consider what changes could safety be made to restrictions.

The Cabinet would meet to sign off on this later.

Holohan made no secret of the fact he was worried. At least 30 people a day are still being hospitalised. At a few minutes to 5pm it was announced that Holohan would hold Nphet’s usual briefing at 5.30pm.

He would be asked about easing restrictions. He would, presumably, explain what was recommended, with context and caution.

About 15 minutes after the briefing was announced, it was cancelled. It was announced that Varadkar would make a “televised address” at 6.30pm. No questions allowed.

His speech had the changes agreed by Nphet. It also smacked of a campaign speech. Uplifting rhetoric, references to letters he received from children and pensioners.

Effectively, the Taoiseach hijacked the announcement.

The politicians politicised and inflated what should have been a low-key transfer of information.

The TV news was full of it, prior to Varadkar’s speech, with analysis afterwards, later news bulletins carried excerpts, then his appearance on The Late Late Show.

Ryan Tubridy was the only one allowed to question him — and Ryan did what Ryan does.

It’s almost as though we’re in the middle of a political campaign, not a health crisis.

‘Fifteen minutes later, the briefing was cancelled. Varadkar would make a televised address’