Yes, that's the point I was making. NEPHT should only talk to the Government. They only see part of the picture. The Government's job is to take their advice and act on it in the larger economic, social and public health context. On this occasion the Government got it right.I think NPHET are perfectly entitled to make recommendations and if it is their belief that the country should move to level 5 based on the facts before them, that is what their role is. However I think it is madness that the NPHET recommendations are made public before they discuss them with the government. They should keep their recommendation private and let the government make the public recommendation once they have made their decision. By all means then let the people know what their recommendation to government was but the 24 hours we had between Sunday and Monday was just crazy, irresponsible and wrong.
A Pub which doesn't serve food which is next door to a Garda Station in a town in Meath was open through the time when only Pubs serving food were meant to be open. We have plenty of gardai, they just need to do their job.Purple has made a good point regarding many people flouting the restrictions. Let's face it there was much more flouting going on than anybody cast a critical eye on. We spent a few days in a holiday beauty-spot while wet pubs were supposed to be shut. Where we were many of them were openly open and the only food you could get there was a bag of crisps and a bag of peanuts at a push.
We don't have the correct amount of gardaí to enforce many laws never mind Covid Restrictions. Personal Responsibility were the two key words since the outbreak of the pandemic here. Many people have lessened the meaning of "pandemic" when it suits them. Personal Responsibility is getting to be a joke more as time creeps on.
Level 5 will cost tens of millions a week more than Level 3. We can't keep borrowing over €100 a week for every man woman and child in the country.I don't know if the move to Level 3 for the entire country will work well, but NPHET and the government are blatantly at odds. Somebody is wrong and we'll find out whom pretty shortly.
They don't represent Pubs.So Neil McDonnell CEO of ISME says many businesses will be closed. If he gets some of his members to look in the mirror, they'll see who's causing the problem.
Garda management lost control years ago. When I heard one of the Garda representative associations (AGSI) saying that measures are "unworkable" or "difficult to implement". These words are code to their members to make sure the measures don't work as intended. This was the case with the mandate to wear masks on public transport, interrupting house parties, regulations for pubs and most recently the restrictions on travel . Gardai stopped many HGV's and delayed them for ages (if comments by drivers on RTE radio are believed) causing them to miss delivery times and ferry departure times. Implementing regulations without common sense ensures they don't work properly.We have plenty of gardai, they just need to do their job.
The level 5 advice is being advised once by NPHET, this time for six weeks instead of 3 weeks. In the face of increasing cases and increasing admissions to hospital this really puts it up to government.
I hope we dont descend into a finger-pointing blame game. This virus is not with us a year yet. Relatively few people (1%) of the population have contracted it so it is understandable that people dropped their guard with the unwinding of measures in the Summer.
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