Responding to the Government\u2019s announcement today on the new strategy for Covid-19, R\u00f3is\u00edn Shortall, TD and co-leader for the Social Democrats, commented:<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Government\u2019s message today was confused and it\u2019s confusing for the public. The new plan was supposed to provide clarity about the five different levels of risk, yet on the first day of the announcement this was muddied by having Dublin at \u2018level two and a bit.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the Dublin area, where the rates of Covid19 are growing rapidly, there was little clarity provided by the Government in respect of additional restrictions necessary and people are largely left to scramble for basic information. This is unforgiveable at a time when people are seriously worried and need strong political leadership in respect of the steps they should now take to reduce the risk in the Dublin area.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is some detail provided about restrictions at different risk levels, but this is all subject to change within those levels by NPHET.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo criteria have been set down for categorising counties by risk level and for moving between risk levels. How can the public anticipate restrictions and modify their behaviour in the absence of any information?<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is still no commitment from the Government about urgently improving the testing and tracing system, which was called into question last week when testing at meat plants was suspended. Despite rising case numbers, Government still hasn\u2019t played its part by ramping this up immediately in terms of capacity and turnaround.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith regard for foreign travel, the Government has parked any further announcement until mid-October subject to decisions by the European Commission.<\/p>\n
\u201cLastly, this plan was created with no consultation with the opposition. In fact, there has only been one briefing with opposition party leaders since April.\u201d<\/p>\n
[ENDS]
\n15th September 2020<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Responding to the Government\u2019s announcement today on the new strategy for Covid-19, R\u00f3is\u00edn Shortall, TD and co-leader for the Social Democrats, commented: \u201cThe Government\u2019s message today was confused and it\u2019s confusing for the public. The new plan was supposed to provide clarity about the five different levels of risk, yet on the first day of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1004,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,264],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-press-release","category-roisin-shortall"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n