'The confusion comes from the top' - Opposition slates Living With Covid plan
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The Government has come under fire from opposition leaders about their new plan for dealing with Covid-19 for being "confusing".
Most of Tuesday's Dáil business was dominated by Covid-19 with heavy criticism of labelling Dublin in "limbo" between level 2 and 3, according to Sinn Féin.
"The press conference was incoherent, I wasn't at all assured by the responses by the Taoiseach on where the capital is, and the fact that it's in some sort of limbo," said party health spokesman David Cullinane.
"We need clear positions and a clear plan that works."
The Government hires a PR firm to launch their new plan & still make a mess of the press conference. They also refused to allow any time in the Dáil to debate & scrutinise the plan. It was almost impossible to create even further confusion & yet they managed it @sinnfeinireland
— David Cullinane T.D. (@davidcullinane) September 15, 2020
During Leader's Questions, Mary Lou McDonald criticised the government's communications and actions.
"Twenty one advisors, God almighty," she said, in reference to the government's actions, and added the Taoiseach's ability to manage the Covid-19 crisis has "collapsed" in recent months.
Social Democrats co-leader Roisin Shorthall said: "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 'level two and a bit'.
"For the Dublin area, where the rates of Covid-19 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."
Labour similarly said that the "confusion comes from the top" over the plan and disputed health minister Stephen Donnelly's assertion that the opposition were purposefully undermining the message.
"We got a huge level of confusion. We didn't want confusion or to speak about confusion, we need to have clarity because without it we can't show leadership in our own communities," Labour TD Aodhán Ó Ríordáin said.
"We back the plan, we understand we're trying to suppress the virus, we want to be in a position and be responsible politicians in our communities however when we have a press conference and then the Minister for Health contradicts the press conference on radio about Dublin travel, then it leads us to believe the mixed messaging is really concerning."
Fellow Labour TD Duncan Smith said that he felt that the government had "bottled it" on the Dublin issue.
"On the very first day of publication they have made a very ham-fisted special case of Dublin," he added.
"People are genuinely confused, if we have five levels, we should have Dublin on one level, level two or three, not two and a half.
"This has made a very, very poor precedent for what is going to be a plan we will have to live with for the next six to nine months, according to this government.
"Don't be make a special case because we would make a special case of one, then every county when their cases go up or come down will be asking for special cases.
"I think that should have just gone with level two, or level three. That would have been clear and the people have shown throughout this virus that we will adapt to regulations."