Author Archives: Bodger

This afternoon.

Orla writes:

A colleague of mine cannot access indoor dining because she doesn’t have a Covid-19 certificate.

She doesn’t have a vaccine certificate because she can’t get the vaccine for medical reasons. I was shocked to find out that there is no exemption for people who can’t get the vaccine.

I’ve tried to find politicians discuss this and can only find this reference to Senator Denis O’Donvon raising the case of a woman, a pharmaceutical worker with Jannsen and lecturer, who can’t get the cert after she had an adverse reaction to her first shot. There is no mention of her having any underlying condition. The senator relayed to the Senate what she told him:

‘I am not a crackpot anti-vaxxer. I want to do my part in reducing the risk. But right now, the only way I can have a normal life like the rest of my family is to get Covid-19 myself and recover in order to get a Covid-19 certificate.’

In response, the Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly said:

“Covid passes for those who cannot be vaccinated is something we have discussed previously. It is a difficult balance. In many cases the reason people cannot be vaccinated is that there are underlying conditions that put them at higher risk. When I have discussed this with officials and public health doctors previously they have pointed out that it is not fair to say to people who cannot get vaccinated, the vast majority of whom would choose to be vaccinated, that they cannot avail of pubs and restaurants indoors.

“The counter to that is that while it may not be fair, if they have an underlying condition that puts them at higher risk of Covid-19, there is a real risk to them in some of these situations. There is no clean or easy answer to this. It is a deeply unfair situation. It is a small number of people, but it is an unenviable position. The current position is based solely on their health and safety and minimising the risk of exposing them to Covid.”

So health officials say it’s unfair and even NPHET strongly recommended in its letter of October 18 to Minister Donnelly that the Rapid Testing Expert Advisory Group examine “the potential role and feasibility of rapid testing as a component of the COVID pass for those for whom, on medical grounds, it is not been possible to get fully vaccinated.”

Has this not happened? If not, why not? How is this fair?

Anyone?

RollingNews

Friday.

Dáil Eireann.

Roscommon-Galway independent TD Michael Fitzmaurice made a passionate response to news of new covid restrictions….

“When I saw stuff coming up on my phone today, it reminded me of the song about “the day the music died”. For the youngsters of this country, the announcement this evening is devastating. It is devastating not alone for them but for any person who talks about being a politician or being involved in politics because we politicians saw what was coming from NPHET today on our phones. It was not from a Minister. We did not get any briefing.

It is similar to every bit of emergency legislation that has come in to this Dáil in the past year. Some of it was got ready on a Thursday or Friday and, over the weekend, every journalist was able to write about what we would look at next week. If we are elected by the people, we should be informed.

Government Ministers, especially, should be informed of what is coming down the line and not reading it on a phone, like we did two to three hours ago, before our Taoiseach came out to tell the people. It was not a new story because it was on the phones before he came out. We knew what was going to happen.

Unfortunately, Ministers are in a no-win position. The likes of NPHET will make their decisions. If a Minister does not go with it, he or she is made a pariah in the media.

Between the media and the doctors running this country, we are like the last link in the chain. We come in here and we vote one way or the other, be it on a Wednesday, Friday or Saturday evening, but all we are really doing is endorsing what unelected people have advised be done.

I worry where we as a nation are going. Sometimes, you have to stand up and be counted. Everyone in this House and society in general wants to suppress Covid and to get rid of it. Some of the youngsters in Ireland have never been to a disco. That is sad.

It is all right for us, we have lived life, been to places and we did not have to wear masks for years, but the youngsters who are of an age to go out do not know what is to go into a normal place. This will be the second Christmas they do not have a lot to look forward to. This Christmas they will be under the feet of their mothers and fathers, which is not a normal Christmas.

If I want to travel from some other country into this country, I have to get a negative PCR test 72 hours beforehand or a negative antigen test 48 hours beforehand and I can sit beside another person on the aeroplane for up to two hours while, at the same time, when it comes to the local pub, I cannot go to the bar, I cannot sit at a table with more than six persons and I have to produce a document confirming that I am vaccinated and, if not, I have to go outside to a shed with my drink. Where are we going as a country? We need to make sure that we bring people with us.

I worry about democracy. There will always be debate, disagreement, people who have different views, right and wrong, and people to whom you could not tell one thing or the other. I worry when I look at what is happening in Australia and what is being talked about in Austria and in Germany by the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, and her sidekick, Ursula.

I hope Ireland does not go down that road. I believe in democracy and the political system, whether on one side or the other. We should always respect each other. We should not shut down debate and questioning. Unfortunately, in the media you are put into a box. You could be the biggest supporter of something, but if you ask a question against it you are now put into a little corner and you are one of them. That is not the way politics should be done.

“I worry as well about powers. We were told by the so-called experts that if we reached an 85% or 90% vaccination rate, it would be happy days, happy Christmas and happy everything. I talk to people from around the country.

Ordinary, hard-working people are asking me if this is ever going to end. They were told this and that a year ago, something else six months ago and now we are back to square one. I understand that Covid is a virus and that nobody knows the ins and outs of it but, my God, we are at a crossroads in our country.

We need to give people hope, in particular those working in the hospitality sector. In a normal year, disc jockeys would have 16 nights’ work over Christmas. This year, they will have none and they will get only approximately €200 per week because the PUP will come back. They are not part of an employment because they are subcontractors. That is the reality. What did they earn in the past year? The PUP came down and because they had no tax, they were not open.

Will this be a happy Christmas for them? Definitely not. Make hay when the sun shines is a lesson we in rural Ireland always learned. Unfortunately, those people have gone into darkness tonight. I urge the Government to think of all aspects of the hospitality sector.

“As a Dáil, we need to start scrutinising some of the decisions that are coming forward. The Government cannot keep wobbling, twisting and turning. We need leadership or we will lose the people around this country who, in fairness, have made an honest effort this past year.

“We need to bring everybody with us. If someone has a reaction to a vaccine, let us not be afraid to talk about it. Let us talk about it and not shut it down. In being open and transparent we bring people with us.

“I do not believe in bringing in more and more powers. Powers will not solve this. I have trust in the people of Ireland, who are making an honest effort. We do not need to make criminals out of them.”

Earlier: Derek Mooney: Filtering NPHET

Meanwhile…

Hmm.


Solicitor Simon McGarr is fighting to get access to records for a Mother and Baby Home survivor

This afternoon.

The Government promised to ensure Mother and Baby Home survivors would get access to their personal information, contained within the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes’ records, in line with EU law, or more specifically General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

But it hasn’t done so, citing a Statutory Instrument from 1989.

However, the SI is inferior to GDPR.

Solicitor Simon McGarr, in his latest Gist article, explains:

“…on behalf of a client, on the 17th September my office reported Ireland for this ongoing breach of EU law to the European Commission.

“On the 10th November 2021 the Commission wrote back, confirming it had opened an investigation on foot of that complaint and that it had written to the Department;

‘We wrote to the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth as part of the investigation of this complaint. They informed us that the Minister for Health is progressing new Regulations concerning access to health data as a matter of priority and that officials from the Department of Children are also liaising with the Department of Health on this issue. The Department have informed us that the new Regulations intend to take into account of the requirements of the GDPR, and the issue of mandatory consultation with a health practitioner will be given further consideration. They stated that it is anticipated that the new Regulations will be in place by the end of the year.’

“In response, I pointed out that the Minister had not accepted that the requirement for a mandatory consultation with a health practitioner would be changed, but merely that it would be given ‘further consideration’.

“I then supplied the Commission with a copy of the new Legislative Heads for the same Minister’s proposed Birth Information and Tracing Bill, drawing their attention to Section 10(2), which repeats and continues the same block on direct access, and maintains the same requirement from the 1989 SI, that survivors’ medical records would be sent to doctors, not to them directly.

“We’re awaiting their reply, but it appears as though Ireland remains under investigation.

“And, for survivors, a right that everyone seems to acknowledge they have—to access their medical data under the GDPR—continues to be blocked.”

Anyone?

The Gist: Ireland under Investigation

RollingNews

Dun Leary House, Dun leary Hill, Dun Laoghaire, county Dublin

Ah Here.

This morning.

Via Irish Times:

Plans to remove the roof and add four storeys to a protected 19th-century house in Dún Laoghaire as part of a build-to-rent development have been submitted to An Bord Pleanála.

Ted Living Ltd is seeking permission for 146 rental-only apartments in blocks up to eight storeys on the old Tedcastles Yard industrial site, opposite the town’s west pier, using the Strategic Housing Development system due to be discontinued next year.

The site includes Dun Leary House, a distinctive yellow brick, detached four-storey house dating from the 1870s, built for the original owner of the adjoining coal yard.

Ted Living last year sought permission to demolish the house as part of plans for 161 build-to-rent apartments, but

Build-to-rent plans for Dún Laoghaire yellow brick house (Irish Times)

Google Streetview

Professor Pete Lunn, Head of the Behavioural Research Unit, ESRI

This morning.

The ESRI’s Professor Pete Lunn said they have found that if you take the proportion of the population each week or each day that visits a cafe, pub or restaurant, the proportion of unvaccinated people going indoors is “a little over half the proportion of the vaccinated”.

Speaking on RTÉ’s Today with Claire Byrne, he said unvaccinated people are not getting into pubs and restaurants as much as vaccinated people are.

“But they are doing so more than half the amount, and in pubs and restaurants a bit more again,” he said.

“Not as much as vaccinated people but not far off, so they’re clearly finding places that they can get in.”

Unvaccinated people ‘finding places they can get in’ – ESRI data (RTÉ)

Meanwhile…

Via Irish Times:

…That a small cohort would effectively hold society hostage seems profoundly unfair to many, and how this should be tackled is an open question. This, of course, isn’t solely an Irish problem – Austria’s decision to impose lockdowns on the unvaccinated in mid-November was motivated by alarming strain on ICU capacity, driven almost entirely by those shirking vaccination. In Slovakia, Greece, and the Czech Republic similar restrictions have been imposed on vaccine-refusing cohorts for the same reason. Germany has also now introduced strict curbs on unvaccinated people.

Such measures, however, raise passionate ire, frequently decried as an infringement of liberties. But such arguments fail to recognise that others have a reasonable expectation that they should not be needlessly exposed to avoidable dangerous pathogens, nor should selfish stances be allowed imperil the freedom of others.

Such arguments also fail on another level – the unimmunised ultimately reduce the efficacy of vaccination, effectively functioning as human petri dishes. As the virus runs through them, random mutations eventually endow it with the ability to evade vaccines. The dominance of Delta and the emergency….

Um.

Small anti-vaccine cohort can’t hold society hostage (David Robert Grimes, Irish Times)

RollingNews

Meanwhile…

Peanut butter.

*drools*

Meanwhile…

Gulp.

Anti-mask mandate protest in Dublin last Friday

This morning.

Via RTÉ News:

The Department of Education has revised a controversial instruction issued to schools last week, which directed that older children should be refused entry to primary schools if they decline to wear a mask without medical reason.

In fresh guidance sent this morning, the department has told schools that “it is not intended that any child will be excluded from a school in the first instance“.

There was outcry last week after primary schools were directed in a memo sent late on Tuesday to refuse entry to older pupils who presented without masks.

Schools were initially told the instruction applied from Wednesday morning. However later the department clarified that “flexibility” would be allowed during the first couple of days.

That’ll learn them

Primary pupils won’t be excluded for no masks – Dept (RTÉ)

RollingNews

This evening.

Good times.

Earlier: We Did Everything You Asked

Meanwhile…