McWonkey has been an utter dose but he actually sounded reasonable on his contributions this morning. He even suggested retail should be opened which is the first time Iāve heard anything from his tending towards opening and not doom and lock it down.
Sick pay, GP care and an end to zero hours contracts are all things we should aspire to anyway. The fact that they would help with covid is a major addition factor. Canāt see why anyone would consider that nonsense.
Is there supposed to be a review today? I vaguely remember them saying at the onset of this new lockdown that there would be a 4 week review.
What is the argument that they help with Covid?
I thought Luke OāNeill spoke a lot of sense on whatever the Newstalk show at 4 is called.
Was incredibly optimistic about the vaccine and was strongly suggesting any failure to roll it out quickly would be nothing but a scandal.
In fairness to McDonkey, he was also unusually optimistic about the vaccine on Pat Kenny too. Even when they were pushing him about the difficulty of storing it at -70 he replied āitās hardly putting a man on the moonā
NPHET are meeting today.
They could well recommend a continuation based on Holohan recently. Think the government parties are worried theyāll go strong again and go public with it.
It was leaked from the FF weekly parliamentary party meeting around 2-3 weeks ago that level 5 in this guise will continue for the full 6 weeks.
Sick pay is a huge one. Many people continue to turn up to work even if they have symptoms or have been notified they are a close contact because if they donāt they donāt get paid.
Yeah NPHET like doing the pre emptive strikes and leave the government deal with the fall out. They will predictably look for a 2 week extension but I hope this time there is a bit more push back from government.
I wouldnāt be surprised if that was the end of McConkey. He could be rattling the wrong cages there.
On the news this morning he also seemed to basically say that weād have some kind of level 3 for Christmas.
Bring back Tommy Ryan and his revised delay Christmas til June plan.
McConkey is doing the classic TFK Pivot to remain releveant.
Heās after a few handy likes
They will open retail on 1 December. Almost certainly. Restaurants probably allowed too.
Pubs are unlikely.
I believe they tried to prevent that yesterday but not clear it went well. I think Tony feels emboldened by recent numbers and the level 5 delay.
If they go with the same cod as the last time I canāt see a pub in Ireland not having a pizza oven or a link with the chipper or whatever
Yep this is why there are stories in the press about concern that the numbers have stopped falling.
All joking aside, is it accurate to say that Level 5 hasnāt done anything for the numbers which Level 3 wasnāt already doing?
Yeah I read somewhere that NPHET were advised not to be putting pressure on the government by making public pronouncements. Thats what happens when a person/group go unchecked. It becomes increasingly political and then it is impossible to rein them in. If they do extend the lockdown in its current guise it could be counterproductive in the long run.
They got a warning on it yesterday from government. Iām surprised itās taken government so long. I donāt know why NPHET are still allowed do media briefings.
Level 3 was working, coupled with the timing of the midterm break and brought numbers down quickly.
To be honest my life hasnāt changed a jot between level 3 & level 5. Work is busy, Iām in and out to the office and town seems reasonably busy. Most people are just getting on with things.