Daniel McConnell: Government effort to bring certainty causes more confusion
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The Government simply cannot catch a break.
On the day it announced its ‘Living with Covid Plan’, chaos ensued as the entire Cabinet were forced to limit their movements after health minister Stephen Donnelly became unwell.
On foot of advice of the Chief Medical Officer, Mr Donnelly was told to get a Covid-19 test and, given his close contacts with the rest of the Cabinet, they were told to restrict their movements.
Green Party leader Eamon Ryan did not attend Cabinet in person as he had been self-isolating while a member of his household awaits the result of Covid-19 test.
The unprecedented interruption to Government and parliamentary business was delivered in a somewhat undramatic fashion by Ceann Comhairle Sean O Fearghail.
He told a near-empty chamber that due to "very serious information arriving out of the event today the Cabinet must self-isolate."
He said that all business was suspended until next Tuesday.
A short time later, there was further confusion when Government sources said the Dáil would return with junior ministers standing in for their senior colleagues with the Cabinet continuing to work from home.
The sense of drama and confusion what was happening typified the mood that surrounded the government earlier in the day after their much-leaked plan had landed in a less than convincing fashion.
The main reason for this the purpose of the plan was to bring clarity and certainty to the country by introducing its five-level plan as to how we will live with the virus.
But the decision to place Dublin on a level other than those five levels left people baffled.
As Roisin Shortall put it: “Anybody tuning into the press conference this morning expecting to get clarity and coherent advice will have been bitterly disappointed. The press conference today brought a Government message that was confused and extremely confusing to the public.
The confusion was confounded by the concern raised by some ministers in Government that it took five days for the Cabinet to restrict movement in Dublin, a period when 600 additional cases in the capital were confirmed.
The other major issue is that if as predicted by some ministers that Dublin is on the verge of being moved up to level 3 anyway, why not do it now and be on the safe side?
There was also confusion about the government’s plan to allow travel in and out of the country.
Are we abandoning the green list? When will be adopting the EU guidelines and when will we know what countries we can travel to or not?
And also what about the over 70s?
There was little or no reference to the age group in society who have been most affected by the restrictions over the past six months.
Crucially, Micheál Martin’s less than convincing delivery at the press conference did little to quell the confusion around his government’s plan and must be seen as him as a missed opportunity.
He and his government desperately needed a win having endured a horrid 11 weeks in office but by the time night fell last night, there were more questions than answers.
Once again, the government has dropped the ball.