‘Three More Weeks’

at

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar speaking at Government Buildings this afternoon

Just now.

At Government Buildings.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar announced that the restrictions he announced two weeks ago will continue for another three weeks until May 5.

Minister for Education Joe McHugh has also announced that schools will remain closed and will not reopen until health experts advise that it’s safe to do so.

Earlier, RTÉ’s Education Correspondent Emma O’Kelly reported that the Leaving Cert exams will take place in late July/early August while the Junior Cert exams will likely take place in September – subject to health advice.

Watch the Taoiseach’s speech live here or here

UPDATE:

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72 thoughts on “‘Three More Weeks’

  1. V

    Feck sake

    Happy to support our Healthcare workers and do my bit to help out etc
    Flatten the curve
    As well as my own

    But the hardest hit are people and families that had eff all access to decent healthcare anyway
    Or were ever prioritized in our healthcare infrastructure
    Yet they are there supporting the lockdown restrictions and playing their part

    So if you’re of a mind to put a few bob into the Journal’s collection plate – just hold it for a few days
    Contact your *local school principal/ manager and ask if they have managed to keep their breakfast clubs going (if the school has one of course) in some shape or form

    Put your few yo-yos and goodwill towards that

    For many children, missing school also means missing their only hot meals of the day
    And for those same children education is their safe place, and their route out of generational poverty
    Especially those children that are in hubs, b&bs and hotels
    This may well be the same story for children non Direct Provision

    * or your local Meals-on-Wheels, Community outreach groups, Parish VdP chapter, Community Health Centre and the local social workers and district nurses, and your local Garda Station – if it’s a full time station they’ll also have a few Community Guards on the roster who tend to be very hands-on

    Just saying

    1. Cú Chulainn

      This is complete bullpoo . There are no tests. None of this makes any sense without tests. The HSE are incompetent. Where are the deaths happening..? How can we stop unnecessary death..? We don’t have a clue because the HSE fupped up. The only tests happening are with people (god bless them) who are clearly already ill. This whole operation is a pile of incompetence.

  2. Ina

    It’s the time to introduce a super tax on the wealthy. Time to get that Apple tax money. Time to release the names of the Ansbacher Account holders. It’s now that we should be seriously hiking up inheritance tax.

    1. bisted

      …sorry Ina…the FFGers are forming a government to protect their vested interests…better luck next time…five more years…

    2. Cú Chulainn

      Seriously.. what rock did you crawl out from under. Money doesn’t exist. We made as a construct. Grow the fupp up and actually made a difference.

    1. GiggidyGoo

      ‘twil be at least 8 weeks of closedown of hotels, sports events, concerts etc. Lockdown might be relaxed in 4-5 weeks for people themselves.

      1. Steph Pinker

        I’m not so sure GG, I heard a doctor on Drivetime yesterday with Mary Wilson, and his response to her question regarding a timeline about retail/ pubs opening was that it could be 12 months, but at least 6 – in his professional opinion. It’s unbelievable; how are we, as a a society expected to cope, survive and live with these measures? I know so many people who are struggling thus far with money/ rent/ mortgages/ food, isolation, non-Covid related health issues, emotional-mental health issues, practical and financial aspects of trying to keep a business/ job etc…

        This acting government need to change tack; the average Joe and Joanne are, and have fulfilled their civic duty, but there’s something really rotten in this state with the level of procrastination, lack of factual information and the reluctance to address the issues within the Dept. of Health and government – and I’m not comfortable with it.

  3. jamesjoist

    A Grandson of mine is really p-ss-d about the Leaving Cert thing . He and his buddies had a post Cert holiday booked for July . The virus was innocently brought back from a schoolkids skiing holiday , you would shudder to think what is brought back from the debauched post Cert holiday s .

      1. GiggidyGoo

        They sure do. But obviously no humanity there. I’ve ordered my last item from China to be honest. They can go and …… right off now. I hope the likes of eBay etc. start cutting them off. Shower of ..nuts.
        And i’m going Thai now in takeaways.

          1. GiggidyGoo

            The belt needs adjusting a bit probably. But that’s a despicable way for Chinese to conduct ‘business’ during a pandemic which the Chinese unleashed upon the world.

          2. Janet, I ate my avatar

            the Chinese unleashed nada, a pandemic was on the cards for a long time and could have come from many places,
            better to consider humanity, how we are living and our effect on the world, we are global and that’s the point this should drive home

          3. GiggidyGoo

            If you’re trying to be clever V, we can get back to your own bit of mask slipping and throwing your toys out of the pram not so very long ago.

            Again

            Up to you.

          4. GiggidyGoo

            Janet – the fact is that this pandemic has its roots in China. As had SARS. Another fact is, as per the video, a supplier in China has supplied ultra-inferior product and has gained a nice profit from doing so. Those are facts. The quest to consider humanity which you have said should be a goal doesn’t take away from those facts.

            Funny how yourself and her ladyship, V, always resort to the race card? Before you start labelling, look up the definition of ‘Race’.

          5. Janet, I ate my avatar

            From the origin of infectious diseases..

            A tentative earlier formulation noted that major infectious diseases of temperate zones seem to have arisen overwhelmingly in the Old World (Africa, Asia and Europe), often from diseases of Old World domestic animals. Hence one goal of this article is to reappraise that conclusion in the light of studies of the past decade. Another goal is to extend the analysis to origins of tropical diseases (Diamond and Panosian, 2006). We shall show that they also arose mainly in the Old World, but for different reasons, and mostly not from diseases of domestic animals. These results provide a framework for addressing unanswered questions about the evolution of human infectious diseases—questions not only of practical importance to physicians, and to all the rest of us as potential victims, but also of intellectual interest to historians and evolutionary biologists. Historians increasingly recognize that infectious diseases have had major effects on the course of history; for example, on the European conquest of Native Americans and Pacific Islanders, the inability of Europeans to conquer the Old World tropics for many centuries, the failure of Napoleon’s invasion of Russia, and the failure of the French attempt to complete construction of a Panama Canal (Crosby, 1986; McNeill, 1976; Ramenofsky, 1987). Evolutionary biologists realize that infectious diseases, as a leading cause of human morbidity and mortality, have exerted important selective forces on our genomes (Anderson and May, 1991; Dobson and Carper, 1996).

            now why the Africans don’t have a lot to answer for …yet is because it is less developed and there is less travel etc..

            The Chinese have a history of underpar goods compared to Europe, you don’t have to think it’s particularly sinister when there is already a pattern for that

          6. V

            Gloo

            I think you’ll find it isn’t me the expression the masked slipped belongs to around here

            And if my content around here was in anyway doubtful
            Or risky
            Make no mistake Broadsheet HQ would let me know

            Or even another columnist(s)

            And it’s even funnier that you made a remark about me using the race cardin a reply to Janet
            And yet I didn’t use that expression at all

            See, your true colours Goo
            No denying it now

            All the best folks

          7. GiggidyGoo

            Well Virtue. BS removed your comment about a well known hotel establishment as it could have landed them with legal difficulties. Yes it was doubtful or risky.

            You then proceeded to deny that you ever made the comment. Which showed your, ahem, true colours.

            You further went on to try intimidate BS and eventually proclaimed ‘take my comments down, take my articles down, I’m finished with BS’ (only to return a week later).

            And here you are again with the ‘all the best folks’ cop out. Maybe ‘That’s All Folks’ would be a better choice.

          8. GiggidyGoo

            Thanks Janet. Interesting article about the history of infectious diseases.
            The Coronavirus and SARS both originated in China, and both are viruses – not diseases.

            I can live with the fact that these viruses originated in China. If the result is that it spreads worldwide, then that is unavoidable.

            However, and you’ve pointed this out, the Chinese are noted for supplying substandard products. We can live with their electronics, clothing, seat coverings etc.etc.

            For them to provide equipment as in the video above crosses the line as far as I’m concerned. It came apart like cotton wool. It places health workers in a dangerous situation.

            For me to say I won’t deal with Chinese is in some way racist you believe. In that case, isn’t the same to be said about the Chinese manufacturers and the Chinese government who have no problems doing this to the Western World? Aren’t they racist?

          9. Janet, I ate my avatar

            I’m just saying sweeping statements help no one and China is a big place, full of good people, bad people, opportunistic people just like everywhere else,

          10. f_lawless

            Also I think there’s always a danger of letting one’s opinion be formed by emotive videos on social media which can often be miscontextualised.

            The poster, Ian Miles Cheong, writes “Medical clothing sent from China has just arrived in France.”

            But according to this article:
            https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8195347/Nurses-gowns-disintegrate-French-hospital-coronavirus-patients.html

            “A spokesman for Public Assistance – Hospitals of Marseille, which controls hospitals in the region, said an immediate investigation into the gowns was carried out.

            The official told French station 20 Minutes that the probe had concluded the gowns degraded after being stored in a ‘too humid environment’, with evidence of water damage on the boxes.

            They denied that the supplies had been bought recently from China, saying they were part of France’s national stockpile that was put together before the coronavirus crisis began.”

            Who is Ian Miles Cheong? According to his twitter profile, managing editor of “Human Events” an online outlet with articles like “China is the Adversary America Needs, the adversary that unites Americans against a common enemy moving forward.”..

      2. Wry Vita

        Horsh stuff Janet, and a tad stereotypically negative about Chinese workers.

        How about “in fairness we buy a lot of rubbish from China”.

        Like wasting 4m quid with no accountability new to the HSE. Clueless. Why didn’t the HSE procurement team put in place proper tendering, acceptance criteria at site, and QA a sample, especially at a time of high risk? Too busy with Aer Lingus PR about it’s overpaid bus drivers.

        Paul Reid should be fired.

        1. Janet, I ate my avatar

          I think you missed my point, I was calling out what I perceive to be casual racism, which is not how I roll

          1. Janet, I ate my avatar

            I have been a regular commentator here for years, and my politics are always very clear, as a ‘ blow in ” I’ll find you have picked up my comments incorrectly…or you are just a name changing troll :)

          2. Andrew

            God forbid you might just deal with the facts. Much better to highlight your ‘perception’ of casual racism.
            Many police forces and councils in the U.K. placed the same importance and you do on ‘perception’ of racism rather than confronting wide scale rape and sexual abuse of vulnerable girls, organised within the Pakistani community.
            This type of moral cowardice enables abusers of all kinds.

            At least though you’re ‘calling out’ things on the internet. Bravo! You’re a warrior!The CCP will be delighted with you.

          3. Andrew

            God forbid you might just deal with the facts. Much better to highlight your ‘perception’ of casual racism.
            Many police forces and councils in the U.K. placed the same importance and you do on ‘perception’ of racism rather than confronting wide scale rape and sexual abuse of vulnerable white girls, organised within the Pakistani community.
            This type of moral cowardice enables abusers of all kinds.
            But look at you, doing your bit on the internet! ‘Calling out’ what you perceive as casual racism. Bravo!
            The CCP thank you for your service

          4. millie aka oprah

            Did you read any of Janet’s other comments Andrew or were you just soooo eager to double post your usual dose of ignorant vitriol? Because if you had, you’d see she made valid points in her discussion with GG and posted a very interesting and informative link.

    1. Janet, I ate my avatar

      the french forget to mention they had pulled a similar move a few weeks previous…on Spain if I remember correctly

  4. Zaccone

    A month of quarantine was entirely reasonable – it gave our health sector time to prepare, allowed more research to come out on the virus etc. But 3.5 more weeks at this stage is ridiculous. Countries across Europe either never quarantined to our extent (Sweden) or are starting to lift their quarantine from next week (Austria, Czechia, Norway, Denmark etc).

    Particularly when all of the data we have now shows under 40s just aren’t at risk from this.

    We should be looking to mitigate the economic damage, and the lives lost from that, now. Keep the over 70s, and those with underlying health conditions that put them at risk, in full quarantine. But let everyone else go back to work/life.

    1. GiggidyGoo

      All well and good You can’t really do anything like that until a covid-jab emerges.

      But I’m casting my mind back just four or five weeks when this virus was introduced to this country. The people in charge just were laid back, laissez- faire, found diversionary phrases to try take the spotlight off of travel.

      A jab has to emerge before what you want happens. Otherwise any arrival to this country who is given a leaflet ‘advising’ isolate rather than being forced to do so, wcan continue this hell.

      1. Zaccone

        There won’t be a vaccine for 18 months. These measure are not sustainable economically, or socially, for 18 months.

        1. Cathal

          20 to 30% of jobs will be gone in 18months anyway, this is the start of a depression , 10 to 15years until it’s kicked

  5. TMAN

    This whole sorry mess is nothing but a poo But at least it’s spring. The moon the last two nights was amazing and the warm sun today was bliss. It would be near impossible if we were coming into November. Be thankful for the small things to get you through the big ones

  6. wearnicehats

    I hope they will stop this now. I don’t see any way that people can take another extension of this. If it’s not sorted then it should be kill or be killed at that stage. Let people loose and see what happens. People just won’t take any more, the economy can’t just keep kicking this down the road. From a mental health point of view this is bad now. Speaking personally, myself and MrsHats parted company amicably (we’re old) a while back. In order to achieve this in the most tax-efficient way (we’re old and sensible) we did have to cohabit during the process but it was for a period that we agreed beforehand and exited when done. If we had been forced to remain together though that would not have been good. I would imagine that there are a lot of couples who, over this first period of forced cohabitation have actually started to realise that life with each other isn’t really great. Imagine your daily life under quarantine as your daily life when you retire. 3 more weeks of quarantine = 25 years of retirement. Imagine you came to that realisation yesterday and today you are faced with 3 more weeks of it. You’ll manage but if they move the goalposts again?

    1. Steph Pinker

      Well said; the decision taken is too extreme and unnecessary. This acting government need to look inwards to their own departments and TDs regarding failures in dealing with Covid-19.

  7. Andrew

    God forbid you might just deal with the facts. Much better to highlight your ‘perception’ of casual racism.
    Many police forces and councils in the U.K. placed the same importance and you do on ‘perception’ of racism rather than confronting wide scale rape and sexual abuse of vulnerable white girls, organised within the Pakistani community.
    This type of moral cowardice enables abusers of all kinds.
    But look at you, doing your bit n the internet! ‘Calling out’ what you perceive as casual racism. Bravo!
    The CCP thank you for your service.
    P.S. Using the term ‘blow in’ and attempting to pull rank by virtue of the fact that you are anonymously commenting on a forum for longer is fairly grim. Nobody cares. There’s no hierarchy, as much as you like there to be one.

    1. Janet, I ate my avatar

      hardly pulling rank, more a reason that commentator I was answering thought I was being racist in my comment about Chinese workers, anyone familiar with my comments would never have chosen that angel, someone new to the site wouldn’t have the background, but sure leap to conclusions…
      I’m not sure how you made the link to those terrible crimes in England,
      I often challenge Giddy on here, and Giddy fair dues will have a constructive conversation and listen to someone else’s opinion, we still don’t agree often but there’s no point getting into a tizzy with you Andrew, you’re far too angry for me,

  8. Dr.Fart

    some of the racism in here is unreal. and i got cencsored before for calling another commenter an idiot. there’s no rhyme or reason to the censoring on broadsheet. brother brahmas literally comments “the chinese are filth” and it’s allowed. absolutely unbeleivable stuff.

    anyway, as a note from someone working as a doctor at this time, i seriously doubt any figures given to the public thus far. this is far more chaotic than anyone knows. it pains me to see Holohan etc on the news saying what we are doing is working, when im seeing a different story altogether.

      1. some old queen

        Calling it ‘The Chinese Virus’ is perfectly acceptable and under no means racist.

        Asking why US military operatives had to step down because of a ‘flu’ in Wuhan six weeks earlier is also- not racist.

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