The government should be honest with the people, says McDonald

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Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald has said: “I think the Government should be honest with the people of Dublin” in response to the Living with Covid-19 medium-term plan that was released today.

The six to nine month plan involves a risk rating system, from the lowest risk level of one to the highest total lockdown level of five.

The whole country is now considered to be at level two.

However, new measures are being introduced in Dublin from midnight, including restrictions on family gatherings, while pubs in the capital that do not serve food will not reopen next week.

The reopening of pubs in other parts of the country will take place as planned on September 21.

Speaking on RTÉ’s Six One program tonight, Ms. McDonald said there is clearly a particular problem in the capital and the number of cases is increasing.

“If it’s something that we need additional action for the city, that just needs to be said out loud,” he said.

But, he said, it should be clear for how long these measures will be in effect.

Today another 357 cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed and of these cases, 218 of them are in Dublin.

Ms McDonald said that the central table that is crucial to managing the public health crisis is testing and tracing, and said it was missing from the government’s plan.

He said we’ve been hearing for months that 100,000 tests would be done a week, but that’s not happening.

He said that anyone who has examined the Covid tracking app in the past seven days would see that not even close to 100,000 tests are being performed.

Ms McDonald said that if this is not fixed, the Government runs the risk of going in and out of the additional measures and the lockdown with all the chaos, difficulties and economic consequences that this would have.

Country needs clarity on plan, says Labor leader

This afternoon in the Dáil, Labor leader Alan Kelly told the Taoiseach that the country needs clarity after today’s plan was announced.

He said it was a very important day that “we were all waiting for”, but said there is an inherent contradiction in today’s plan.

“This is not a five point plan, it is a five and a half point plan,” he said.

Kelly said that everyone should be treated the same: “We cannot have a situation where if Dublin ‘behaves properly’ he receives a yellow card.”

He said the Labor Party supports five phases, but said “5.5 phases is not the right thing to do.”

The Taoiseach said “no big deal here” in Dublin terms. He said NPHET gave advice on Dublin and that the amendment only pertains to “wet” pubs and match attendance.

Micheál Martin said that the government did not receive advice to move to Level 3 and that NPHET could give other advice on Thursday in this regard.

He said the advice is clear about people in Dublin traveling to the rest of the country, as people are encouraged not to travel outside of the capital.

Róisín Shortall, co-leader of the Social Democrats, said: “The new plan was supposed to provide clarity on the five different levels of risk, but on the first day of the announcement this was muddied by having Dublin at ‘level two and a bit’.

“For the Dublin area, where Covid-19 rates are growing rapidly, the government provided little clarity regarding the additional restrictions needed and people are largely left scrambling for basic information.”

The Sinn Féin health spokesperson described the government’s plan as “incoherent”.

Speaking to RTÉ News, David Cullinane said the plan is confusing and appears to leave Dublin in “limbo between level 2 and 3”.

The Waterford TD said that without rapid test-and-trace capability, the government’s plan “is not worth the paper it is written on.”

“There was a 30-minute press conference and only a passing reference to testing and tracing,” he said.

The plan is not easily explained, Cullinane said, “at a time when absolute clarity is needed.”

Cullinane’s criticisms were echoed by Labor Ged Nash. In the Louth TD there was no clarity given by the Government in its announcement today.

He said there is “absolute confusion about what is happening in Dublin.”



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