The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
‘It’s time to open county by county’
KERRY TD Michael Healy-Rae is calling for a county by county approach to be taken to the lifting of Covid-19 restrictions.
The Independent TD argues that counties like Kerry which are “controlling” the Corona Virus should be allowed greater speed in reopening businesses, especially when they can prove this based on official confirmed cases lists.
“With just one confirmed case of Covid 19 in the last 14 days in Kerry, I am calling on the Government to use this information when making decisions on any future restrictions and that it should be considered county by county if necessary so allow counties with little or no new cases to open up all businesses,” he said.
“While it would be foolish to think that the real threat of Covid19 has gone completely the fact that of the 260 cases nationally in the last fortnight only one of them was in Kerry points to solid reasoning as to allow counties to open up at a faster pace of others”
“In the last two weeks from
July 15 there was a further 260 confirmed cases of Covid19 with Dublin accounting for 154 (59 per cent) of them while Kerry accounted for one and some counties, such as Roscommon, Kilkenny and Waterford, have had no cases in the past two weeks” Mr Healy-Rae said.
“Many small businesses last week were looking for some good news in the July Stimulus package and while some measures are welcome, there is little in it for many local small Kerry businesses which either still remain closed or are trying to operate at a fraction of what they should be,” he added.
“It’s causing real hardship”.