Cabinet weary of ‘hints and speculation’ in the absence of a cohesive plan
THE Taoiseach has said he doesn’t foresee pubs and restaurants being open again before mid-summer.
Micheál Martin said that the new variants of coronavirus were of most concern to the Government and public health doctors and, as such, reopening the country would be very slow.
‘We don’t foresee that [reopening pubs etc] before the middle of the summer,’ he told An tSeachtain le Máirín Ní Ghadhra on RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta yesterday.
‘What the public health authorities are saying is that we stick with this until end of April, then we reflect on the situation and make decisions about the months ahead.’
He said the reopening of schools would take place, however, but that it would be gradual.
‘There won’t be much of a change [after this phase] because the numbers are still too high,’ he said. ‘What we intend is to reopen schools gradually... it will be slow, we’ll be cautious, because we have to monitor the effect on the virus.
‘The biggest challenge we face is new variants as they could impact the vaccines.
‘It’s sensible to open slowly, as the vaccines are coming.’
Meanwhile, a two-metre ‘security fence’ has been erected outside Health Minister Stephen Donnelly’s home after a number of incidents in which items were thrown at the health minister’s windows and left on his doorstep. Mr Donnelly and his wife have three young children.
Furious Government ministers have warned that the ‘increasingly chaotic communications shambles’ surrounding the response of the
Taoiseach and the
Tánaiste to coronavirus is compromising the capacity of the State to maintain public support for its strategy.
Ministers across the coalition parties were especially concerned that the chaotic scenes where the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste contradicted eachother on successive RTÉ shows represented a ‘dangerous tipping point’ in the struggle to maintain public support.
A series of polls by the Irish Mail on Sunday have revealed ongoing slippage in support for the Government’s response to coronavirus.
One senior minister noted of the contradictory stances of Mr Martin and Mr Varadkar that: ‘We are in real danger of losing the consent of the public for a strategy that is increasingly unclear.’
The response, another Fine Gael minister warned, was ‘lurching from the chaotic to the shambolic and all sides are to blame.’ Far from blaming spin-doctors or the media, the blame within Fianna Fáil was firmly laid, ‘on the three competing egos of Micheál, Leo and Eamon Ryan’.
One source said: ‘They work well together in Cabinet but once they race out the door all cohesion breaks down.’
It doesn’t help, one minister said, ‘that Micheál doesn’t know his mind from one meeting to another or that Leo cannot resist undermining Micheál’.
A senior minister, at the heart of the Government’s strategy, also conceded that last week had been ‘disastrous, to the point of becoming an ongoing meltdown’.
They said that: ‘In the absence of a national plan, ministers and the Taoiseach fell into hinting and speculating.’
That, they ruefully observed, ‘did not work out very well’.
This concern was echoed across party lines with one senior Fine Gael minister warning: ‘The current drip-feed is driving people close to the edge.’
The public, they warned has,
‘up to now shown huge resilience but public confidence is at a low ebb’.
And a Fine Gael minister said: ‘The greatest defence against the spread of coronavirus is the united support of the people. If you lose the people, you lose the war. Micheál is in danger of doing that.’
‘Lurching from chaotic to shambolic’
CAMPAIGNERS have called for a 24/7 rollout of the Covid vaccines to protect the vulnerable and offer the prospect of reopening at least some of the country sooner.
Their plea for greater urgency comes after the Taoiseach’s gloomy prediction this week that no easing of restrictions is likely for at least nine weeks. And yesterday he added to the gloom, saying it was unlikely hospitality could reopen until mid-summer.
Concerns have been raised over the ‘last-minute’ preparations for vaccinations, given this is the Government’s only weapon in the battle against Covid-19.
A 24/7 rollout is ‘the least we should expect’ of the HSE, according to Stephen McMahon of the Irish Patients Association (IPA).
This follows HSE chief Paul Reid’s comments that the strategy is for vaccine centres to be operating 12 hours a day, seven days a week.
As of February 17, 310,900 vaccinations had been administered and by the end of March, a further 898,218 doses will be delivered.
With 1million vaccines a month expected to come on stream from April, Health Minister Stephen Donnelly has set a target of 250,000 a week, which would meet the earlier target of vaccinating the whole population by September.
But it is likely reopening at any significant scale will not be possible
until case numbers drop to single digits, leading to calls for vaccine efforts to be ramped up further.
The IPA would like to see more ambitious preparations if more vaccines become available.
Mr McMahon told the Irish Mail on Sunday: ‘The reality is every minute counts in this, every minute a jab isn’t in an arm it is risking another death. We should be maximising all resources and we should be fully prepared. Vaccinating 24 hours a day, seven days a week is the least we should expect.
‘Serious questions have to be answered as to why pharmacists have yet to be trained to vaccinate,’ he said.
‘Why don’t we have a fully functioning IT system capable of tracking vaccinations across the country. If you look at what Italy is doing at the minute; updates more than once a day with a breakdown of vaccinations issued by region, by age, by sex. Why are we not at that level? ‘We need to be able to ensure we’re getting the correct percentage allocated by the European Commission and that it’s being delivered and issued. We’re looking at how fast our neighbours in the UK are getting this done and we’re rightly asking questions around why we’re not pushing to do the same.’ Taoiseach Micheál Martin said he does not foresee pubs and restaurants being open again before mid-summer. He told RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta that the new variants of Covid-19 meant reopening the country would be very slow.
His comments came after Tánaiste Leo Varadkar said this week he was hopeful domestic tourism will be possible this summer.
Adrian Cummins of the Restaurants Association of Ireland said the Government does need to examine the fact that outdoor dining will only benefit around 20% of businesses and will still not be possible for the majority. He said a clear roadmap to full reopening is needed and hopefully this will be provided in the updated ‘Living with Covid’ strategy next week.
‘Our main ask is two things, continue supports, increase them,’ he said. ‘Because what we are getting is not enough. And also a very clear, defined roadmap to reopen restaurants, fully, not partially. We have one shot now, of getting it right reopening our economy. And we need to make sure we get it right.’
‘Every minute without a jab is another death risk’