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The Taoiseach has said that the government’s medium-term plan to live with Covid-19 will imply a reduction in social contacts at all levels, including at home, since that is where the disease is most prevalent.
Micheál Martin said the priority was to keep schools and universities open and that everything possible would be done to achieve this, including prioritizing schools over sports and opening pubs.
Speaking on RTÉ’s The Week in Politics, he rejected suggestions that Ireland should adopt herd immunity, saying it didn’t work.
He said he was concerned about the “aggressive” march in Dublin yesterday against public health measures.
Mr Martin denied that the Government had been too slow to introduce further restrictions in Dublin as suggested by the Acting Medical Director and would act decisively on Tuesday.
Citing the restrictions imposed last month on Kildare, Laois and Offaly, he said “we have to learn from what we have done in the past.”
The Taoiseach also said that Ireland wants to join the EU’s initiative on international travel and that there could be a system where people traveling here from red-listed countries can get tested for the virus in advance.
Sinn Féin TD Matt Carthy said that public trust is being eroded by the decisions the government is making to deal with Covid-19.
Also speaking on RT E’s The Week in Politics, he accused the government of “double talk and double standards” over what he described as “contradictions that lie at the heart of some of the restrictions.”
Carthy, a Sinn Féin spokesperson on agriculture, said the issue of international travel “is a very good example of where confusing messages have been spread” that he says have caused difficulties and anxieties.
He said it takes “a very simple and understandable process” and said it should involve people being tested when they arrive at airports and ports and allow them to continue their business if they test negative.
Carthy said current guidelines regarding international travel are “creating confusion and undermining public confidence” in current regulations, guidelines and advice, which he said could lead to “a very dangerous situation.”
At the protest march in Dublin yesterday against the wearing of masks and other Covid-related restrictions, Carthy said that organizers were “trying to manipulate, what is at the heart, some very genuine concerns that are happening within our community.” .
Labor TD Duncan Smith said the rising rates of Covid-19 in Dublin are concerning and “out of place” with the rest of the country.
He said “there is a lot of progress” in the plan to be published on Tuesday and said there must be clear guidance and that people must live up to that advice to control the spread of the virus.
Smith said it will require “a clear communication plan” from the government and said that is where the coalition has failed.
He said that “it started with Leo Varadkar with the outcome of the previous phases” and said that during the last 12 or 13 weeks, the Government has been “lost at sea.”
The Labor Party spokesperson on climate action, communications and transportation said that “if we are going to have to live with Covid-19, there must be a plan on how each sector of society will be able to live with Covid.”
“We need a plan not just for pubs, we need a plan for the travel industry, our tourism industry, our taxi drivers and our arts industry. That is why Tuesday is so important. There are so many industries that have been left behind.”
Mr. Smith also said that “during the last weeks, with this government, the public does not know what is being asked of them” and said “that it has been a failure of the Taoiseach and the Minister of Health, mainly”.
Independent TD Verona Murphy, speaking on the same show, said responses to Covid-19 cases need to be analyzed locally.
She said that whenever there is an increase in cases of the virus, “we talk about blocking or partial blocking.”
‘Frank exchange’ on Brexit
On Brexit, Martin said there was a frank exchange of views with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
On Johnson’s controversial UK internal market bill, released last Wednesday, Martin said the British decision was “unilateral” and that there was no system-wide notice, including the Irish government, group officials. of work or the main negotiator of the Brexit of the EU, Michel. Barnier.
Martin said Johnson was creating claims that were in no way associated with reality and that a no-deal Brexit would be ruinous for Britain and damaging to the Irish economy.
He said that whatever ploy was attempted would find a very firm and strategic response from the EU.
“They do care in the end.”
Mr Martin said that Mr Johnson “knows well” that the European Union is not trying to divide the UK.
When asked about reports of internal tensions within his party, Martin said there was no scathing criticism of him at the Parliamentary Party meeting last week and that one person had spoken at the end of the meeting.
He said he was talking to his TDs and at the gates with them and the suggestions that he was not engaging with them are “bullshit and nonsense.”
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