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A coronavirus vaccine could be ready in March or April next year, but the virus’s impact will be felt throughout 2021, according to the Taoiseach.
icheál Martin also said that a “huge economic problem” surrounding the pandemic cannot be ignored.
Speaking with Brendan O’Connor on RTÉ Radio One this morning, Mr. Martin said that the “full impacts” of the virus will be felt over the next year even if a vaccine is found.
“There is also a big economic problem here that we cannot ignore. We have a deficit of 8%, we have 24,000 million euros, perhaps necessary at the end of the year. I think we are seeing something similar throughout 2021
“I think this virus will be with us during that period,” he said.
The Taoiseach said the WHO informed him that a vaccine could be found by spring next year.
“I think we could get vaccinated, maybe, in the middle of the year.
“The full impact of the virus will be with us throughout the year, I think, that’s my opinion and it’s a sobering idea.”
“That is not final. They gave me a date around March / April, it could be a time when that would crystallize, but again there would be a problem in manufacturing,” he added.
When Dublin closed last night at midnight, there were reports that Nphet may have considered moving it to Level 4.
However, the Taoiseach downplayed these claims.
H said that moving the capital to Level Four “was certainly not communicated to us either verbally or in the letter that Nphet sent to the government.”
“That was not discussed at all, it was not mentioned.”
However, he said he would have been notified if Nphe was considering it and “we had been alerted and we have an oversight group to bring the departments together.”
“There could have been people within the Nphet, they would not be aware of the internal discussions within the Nphet itself, I believe that the people in Nphet should have the freedom to articulate within Nphet.
“It would give me a signal that something is happening here or that they are considering something as dramatic as level four,” he said.
“Our goal is to get back to level two in Dublin and we really need to focus on the guidance that was issued yesterday,” added the Taoiseach.
Speaking about the program, he also said that more resources must be invested in digital and green economies for a “new economy” to emerge.
“Covid is going to change our economic structure, it is going to accelerate some changes.
“We are borrowing a lot of resources and I think we should allocate some of those resources to productive areas to create new jobs in new areas and create a new economy,” Martin said.
“This is digital, it is in the green economy and I think that in the agri-food area there are also new sources of income and new types of activity [that] we can develop through the resources we are currently borrowing, so that you get a long-term return on that resource allocation, ”he added.
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