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Taoiseach Leo Varadkar says he is “increasingly confident” that Ireland can enter Phase One of the roadmap to reopen the economy on Monday, but warned that it will be “months, not weeks,” before people can travel across Europe again.
Mr. Varadkar said it should not be taken for granted that Ireland can go through all five phases of the document, which was released three weeks ago, and that we may see setbacks along the way.
The Taoiseach said the Covid-19 virus is “a retreating fire,” but said it is vital that we as a country “put out every spark.” Mr. Varadkar said that the Government’s response will continue to follow the “test, isolate, trace and treat” path, but that the various stages of the roadmap, scheduled to be introduced every three weeks, may need to be changed .
“As we are seeing around the world, this is not a direct path. Sometimes progress stops and there are setbacks. We have seen examples of this in Germany, South Korea and, again, more recently in Wuhan.”
“The crucial thing is to keep doing the right things, stick to the strategy and stay focused and wait and look for new groups and outbreaks.”
This virus is a retreating fire. We must quench every spark and kill every ember.
Mr Varadkar added that the Government is committed to protecting the rights of citizens to move freely in the EU, but that these rights have been affected by the Covid-19 outbreak:
“While these rights may be restricted for a time, due to the pandemic and the public health emergency, it is our policy to resume normal travel for business, pleasure, study, and visits with friends and family as soon as it is safe to do so, but not before.
“This is something the European Commission is currently working on. However, it will be months and not weeks before this is possible.”
Varadkar said Ireland should be comfortable with the “new normal” of hand washing, respiratory etiquette, and staying home when sick. He said that no amount of facial covers or perspex screens is a substitute for those.
Fianna Fáil leader Michéal Martin expressed concern over the lease of private hospitals for 115 million euros per month.
He said the side effect has been hampering diagnoses in non-Covid patients. Martin argued that in the event of a second wave of infections, private hospitals could be rehired.
“It is now a complete part of a system-wide problem of diagnostic and treatment collapse for non-Covid cases.
There is a significant under-utilization of the vital capacity of the hospital that is no longer justified.
“Overall, the situation is a disaster. I’ve been pointing this out for six weeks. The failure to get a proper consultant contract negotiated has gone on too long. The deal with the operators was one of mutual convenience: The state needed a capacity to Sudden increase and the operators have their expenses ordered in the initial phase, probably where their income was not reaching.
“Now we need a comprehensive strategy, there is none at the moment, to recover that hospital capacity in the most complete way possible. It has been a very expensive treatment.”
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