Reopening plans made amid growing frustration at Donnelly

When  Michael Ring took aim at the performance of Stephen Donnelly on Wednesday night, he was, whether he knew it or not, articulating the concerns and frustrations of many Coalition ministers and TDs with the Health Minister.   

It is hard to find much support for Donnelly after another week of the minister demonstrating what Ring colourfully referred to as “foot-in-mouth” disease. 

“They have to always put their mouth to a microphone, they have a microphone mouth,” the Mayo TD told the Fine Gael parliamentary party.

“We can’t have the one person causing us a problem all the time.”

First, there was Donnelly’s ill-fated suggestion last weekend that under-30s could be prioritised for vaccination — a possibility that collapsed more quickly than the European Super League.

“Donnelly is making some balls of it, isn’t he?” one Fine Gael minister later lamented. “Imagine, the fall-out we’ve had with teachers and gardaí and he comes out with that.”

Then, on Thursday, Donnelly suggested Ireland had joined the EU’s legal action against AstraZeneca. Except the EU had not, at that stage, commenced such an action.

It was not a major faux pas, but detail matters and the minister appeared not to be across it.

Ring later told the Sunday Independent that Donnelly’s suggestion that under-30s could be prioritised for vaccines “was stupid to be throwing out there on a Saturday morning” and unnecessarily alarmed older people still waiting for their jabs. Unfortunately for Donnelly, this is not just typical Fianna Fáil-bashing by Fine Gael.

“Do you blame him?” one Fianna Fáil minister said of Ring’s comments. “He [Donnelly] is killing us, he is the best asset to opposition.” A senior Fianna Fáil TD observed that it is “nearly expected of him [Donnelly] to say something like that every week”.

Sinn Féin’s health spokesman David Cullinane has recently taken aim at Donnelly’s “lack of knowledge of detail” and said “the lack of clarity in his statements is undermining confidence in the vaccine roll-out”.

But then we all make mistakes.

Late on Wednesday night, Cullinane criticised Pfizer’s decision to offer vaccines to the families of its some 4,000 staff in Ireland in a move that will not impact the national roll-out.

“The roll-out of the vaccine and who gets prioritised should be left to the State to decide,” the Sinn Féin TD tweeted. “Prioritising people outside of the programme based on where family members work is not fair. It should be based on need and risk and not who you know.”

It was deleted within minutes. Cullinane did not respond to calls this weekend.

Amid all the doubts about his performance, Donnelly was defiant in the Dáil on Thursday, telling TDs: “The plan is working. It essentially has three elements, namely, the virus at home, variants abroad and the vaccine programme. All three elements of that plan are working, thanks to huge efforts from thousands of women and men all over Ireland.”

While there is some nervousness about slight increases in some key metrics last week, public health officials confidently insist this is transient. On Thursday evening, the returning chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan was bullish.

“If we can maintain our current position there is hope that we can look forward to a real easing of measures, but it is as important as ever that we don’t put that progress at risk by letting our collective guard down too much, or too early,” he told the Nphet press conference.

On Tuesday, Taoiseach Micheál Martin (60) will be registering for his vaccination. As early as Thursday, the Government will announce a further relaxation of public health restrictions for next month while setting out a broad plan for further reopening in June and July.

Up first will be the full return of the construction sector, probably after the May Bank Holiday, and the resumption of click-and-collect services as part of the phased reopening of non-essential retail, with garden centres and homeware shops likely to be among the first to reopen their doors.

Hairdressers, barbers and beauticians will be allowed open next month and religious services will be allowed to resume with limited numbers. Museums and galleries will also be allowed to reopen in May following intensive lobbying by Culture Minister Catherine Martin.

More outdoor activities will be allowed, with Sports Minister Jack Chambers hoping to confirm that outdoor training for adults in pods of 15 can take place. This would mean the return of GAA clubs to training and things like five-a-side football being allowed again. Competitive sport could resume in June or July.

Indeed, ministers believe setting out a roadmap for June and July next week is crucial, not just for the public but the beleaguered tourism and hospitality sector. 

“The focus this week will partly be May, but a bigger focus will be June and July,” a senior Cabinet source said.

So far, all that has been officially signalled for June is that hotels, B&Bs and guesthouses will be allowed to reopen.

On Friday, junior enterprise minister Robert Troy told a webinar organised by the Irish Small and Medium Enterprises Association (Isme) that hospitality may be allowed to reopen in late May. But senior ministers expect it will be June before outdoor hospitality resumes, with the hope that inter-county travel is allowed in that month as well.

Tánaiste Leo Varadkar told his Instagram followers last week he would be making the case for gyms to reopen, while Fine Gael wants to end the distinction between gastro pubs and wet or traditional pubs, as the lobby groups now refer to them.

While there is broad agreement among politicians about reopening, some are slightly more hawkish than others. Indoor dining could return in July, with one senior Cabinet source saying the hotel industry had made clear it needed all of July and August with inter-county travel and no restrictions on indoor dining to save the season.

If all this sounds eerily familiar to the sort of chat emanating from Government before the “meaningful Christmas” catastrophe, then there is of course one key difference: the vaccination programme.

“The fact is the overall level of risk with the virus just drops dramatically as vulnerable cohorts are vaccinated,” the senior Cabinet source said. “Case numbers will become less meaningful as time goes by because they will be younger people for whom it’s not as serious an issue. The overall risk profile is changing for the better every single day.”

The Government has been putting pressure on the National Immunisation Advisory Committee (Niac) to approve the Johnson & Johnson vaccine for use this week; 40,000 doses are due in the country before the month is out as part of 605,000 in this quarter. Leo Varadkar said it would be “pragmatic” and “scientifically sensible” for Niac to approve the single-dose jab for under-60s. The message was clear.

TDs believe the public mood has shifted to one that favours reopening as soon as possible, but safely, now that 25pc of the population have had at least one vaccine dose.

“People know more now, they have masks, they will be more careful,” Michael Ring said. “We’re not ready for the major sporting events, but a lot of retail, the hairdressers, will have to be allowed open. I would be in favour of letting hospitality open — they need to open before June to get some sort of a season out of it.”

Fianna Fáil TD Jim O’Callaghan said: “As the number of vaccinated people increases, so the level of restrictions must decrease. People need to see that their sacrifices and the increasing number of vaccinations are providing hope and a pathway to freedom. That pathway needs to lead to people living with a sense of hope rather than a sense of dread.”

Yesterday, Fine Gael backbencher Emer Higgins called for Dublin Bus to return to full service.

But as the drumbeat for reopening grows louder, the scenes from India are an appalling reminder of the havoc this virus can cause. The country with 1.3 billion people is confirming close to 350,000 new cases every day. Scores of patients are dying because of oxygen shortages in hospitals that are overrun. A new variant —three cases of which are already confirmed in Ireland — and the loosening of public health restrictions too soon is being blamed.

The Irish Government expects to be advised by public health to place India on its mandatory hotel quarantine list in the coming days. But no one in Government is able to say how many people whose journey originated in India have been arriving in Ireland in recent weeks.

Queries to three government departments — Health, Justice and Transport — about the number of arrivals from India went unanswered last week.