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There is a “great chance” that Dublin will move to level three restrictions by the end of the week, says the finance minister.
The capital was located at Level Two with the rest of the country when the government yesterday announced its new framework for living with Covid-19, although with additional restrictions.
However, within minutes of the announcement, government sources warned that Dublin would be in Level Three, which comes with a number of additional restrictions, next week.
Speaking at the Newstalk breakfast today, Minister Paschal Donohoe said it was a “great possibility.”
“I’m doing this interview right now at my home in Dublin, and the concerns that are guiding us regarding Dublin are about how, it’s not just about the increase in disease, it’s about how the disease is spreading from one home to another.
“And that’s a really serious breakthrough for us. And that’s why we are asking in Dublin that meetings of no more than six, and up to two households be held in them. I think moving to level three is a possibility and a real possibility.
“If that happens, it will mean change, and if we get that advice from NPHET, it is something the government will obviously take very seriously. And that will be consistent with the framework we launched yesterday.”
Mr. Donohoe accepted that there has been some confusion about the framework and said that if there is, it is the government that must take responsibility.
“When you launch a plan, you always look back and think ‘are there things we could have done differently?’ And the fact that you are asking me the question emphasizes to me the kinds of issues that I need to clarify. But I would say that the difficulty and the need we have to understand is how we communicate in a single day. We need to be very clear with our country during the next six to nine months, regarding what we ask you to do.
“If there is confusion at the end of the day, you have to take responsibility for that if you are in government.”
The Government is asking a lot from the country.
“And in some cases we ask our country to do things in different places, and in different ways than we would have done before. And we must do our part to communicate it and then, in our country, keep every other safe.”
On the same show, Labor TD Aodhán Ó Ríordáin said the one-size-fits-all approach to Dublin “didn’t help.”
“The five-point plan makes sense to me, but when you pull out the capital city and say ‘you’re on level two point five or three,’ that’s confusing.”
Donohoe also defended Ceann Comhairle’s decision to stop Dáil’s proceedings on Tuesday when Health Minister Stephen Donnelly underwent a Covid test.
The Dáil was a workplace and was subject to the same guidelines as the public. It had been “completely understandable” what had happened, he said. But it might have been more appropriate to have had a temporary postponement.
Earlier in Morning Ireland, Duncan Smith, a Labor spokesman for Climate Action, Communications Networks and Transport, had said the government should have clearly placed Dublin at Level 2 or Level 3 on Tuesday.
Mr Smith questioned why Dublin had not been placed on Level 3 right away, the government “flew enough kites over Dublin in the last week” and people had been waiting and would have accepted stricter measures in the capital.
The government continued to “communicate in a dead end”.
Many of his constituents were confused, he said and had contacted him to ask if they could leave Dublin for work or college, along with the couple, with a small wedding planned outside the capital, who had asked if he could continue. .
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