I think they are in all sorts of quandaries. First of all, they donāt have a lot of the powers that people are screaming to be used i.e. Lockdown. They had to ask the pubs to shut-down for FFS.
The brits is another example. Clearly they are fucking this up royally and will be a huge threat to us if our efforts work and thereās donāt. Shutting the Irish border is near impossible though (as we kept saying during the Brexit talks) and would have political implications for years.
We also need to work broadly within the EU framework. Not a chance we could have, or would have, unilaterally suspended flights to Italy a couple of weeks ago. We will def need friends in Europe in the coming years too.
I suppose what Iām saying is that its hugely complicated, deeply impactful, far reaching, unprecedented and developing extremely rapidly and Iāve never seen an Irish gov (and the civil and public service behind it) move so quickly and decisively before. On balance, I think they have done a superb job while acknowledging that the worst is yet to come.
The reality is the Irish Government cannot just cancel utilities bills and mortgages without deep important discussions with those providers. Everything is circular. They have cash flows to pay wages and bills, like everyone else. DCC just said it today, freezing rates sounds like a great idea, but how with DCC staff be paid?
Closing our borders would have put us out of step with the rest of the EU, who only started moving unilaterally last week.
Shutting down large sections a western economy and particularly a small one likes ours in an economic and monetary union is incredibly complex. In some ways to me at an economic level it is easier to plan out the pricing scale of it (than say 2008), but rolling that out is incredibly difficult. We need cash and reliefs in place for those that need it most and we also need people on salaries to continue to spend money.
The economic cost of this has to be taken into consideration by the state. As does law and order. As does the unintended consequences. It just is not easy.
It was a good speech to make on St Patrickās Day. It was the most empathetic heās ever been. Seeing the lads who created a pie in the sky tax and spend plan & used slogans like āfree gaffsā during the election give out about cheap rhetoric is gas.
We need to shut our borders for a week or two but the north are fucking us. We need a strict ask for all citizens to stay in doors for that same time. Just slow everything right down until we get way more tests and testers and more people up and running in the healthcare with alternative locations for non virus related injuries and sickness.
Youāre at the higher end of my ranges there. We need to be hoping for a 375 or under to truly #flattenthecurve. New cases have been sitting just above the 30% increase mark for the last few days.
You said we couldnāt restrict travel from northern Italy. Travel restrictions are common place across the EU now so Iām just wondering what you meant by ācouldnātā as it implies illegality.