Author Archives: Bodger

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar (top) called Sinn Fein President Mary Lou McDonald ‘ two-faced and so fundamentally dishonest’ during exchanges in the Dáil yesterday

This morning

Further to the covid ‘spat‘ between Sinn Féin President Mary Lou McDonald and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar….

FIGHT!

Yesterday: Lou Rolls In A Hurricane

Dublin’s College Green is set to be pedestrianised – and cars restricted throughout the city – under plans to reopen the city centre as Covid-19 restrictions are lifted.

A joint report from Dublin City Council chief executive Owen Keegan and Brendan O’Brien of its traffic department said “the same level of vehicular traffic cannot be accommodated in the city as before”, and in a number of locations “motorised vehicles” would have to banned after 11am each day….

JEH writes:

If Covid can produce a few more of these miracles it might have to get a vote for canonisation.

Car bans and pedestrianised College Green part of radical Covid-19 plan to re-open Dublin (Irish Times)

Graphic: Dublin City Council

Last night.

Photos of Dublin write:

The last Supermoon of the year lined up perfectly with this crane over Dublin city as it rose tonight. Shot from the Phoenix Park by Anthony Lynch Photography

Meanwhile…

Last night.

Galway, County Galway.

Via Chaosheng Zhang

Dublin Airport

Yesterday.

In the Dáil.

Independent TD Michael Collins raised the story in yesterday’s Irish Independent about some passengers failing to fill in a form detailing where they would be staying for the following two weeks, saying:

“We see today that a large percentage of people flying into Ireland are not filling in the form asking them how they intend to socially isolate for two weeks. We need to allay any fears in tourism communities, and that can be done if the completion of these forms was mandatory in airports and ports.”

During his response, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said:

“In terms of the airport forms, they are not yet mandatory. They may well need to become mandatory. That is something we are considering at the moment, but I disagree with the Deputy. Making it mandatory for people to fill in forms to self-isolate for 14 days when they come to the country is not good for tourism.

“People will not come to Ireland if they have to isolate for 14 days. We need to get to the point where we can have air travel start again. I want air travel to start again for business and leisure but that will have to be done safely. That is being worked on at the moment.”

Related: Passengers refusing to give details of plans for quarantine (Independent.ie)

Transcript: Oireachtas.ie

Pic: Rollingnews

One room shared by seven asylum-seeking men in a direct provision centre opened in March in Ennis, Co Clare

This morning.

In The Irish Times.

Sorcha Pollak reports that asylum seekers living in direct provision who lost their jobs due to the pandemic have stopped receiving their Covid-19 unemployment payments.

Ms Pollak also reports that asylum seekers living outside direct provision who lost their jobs due to the pandemic continue to receive the payment.

She adds:

“Asked to clarify why the payment had stopped for those in the accommodation system, a spokeswoman for the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection said people in direct provision already had their “accommodation and other basic needs met by the State, and the Covid-19 pandemic unemployment payment is not available to them”.

“Some 1,208 people living in direct provision were working at the end of 2019, according to Department of Justice figures.”

Meanwhile…

Further to the Minister for Health Simon Harris confirming yesterday evening that there have been 164 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in direct provision centres, infectious disease specialist registrar in Cork University Hospital Dr Eamonn Faller told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland earlier…

“I’m concerned about anyone living in tightly congregated settings. I suppose direct provision centres or any tightly congregated settings are an absolute catastrophe in a pandemic of a highly transmissible airborne virus.

“This virus loves having people that are in close contact, where it can spread. And we’re seeing in the settings within direct provision where people don’t have the facility to social distance, we’re seeing huge increases in the numbers of cases.

“In the last five days, we’ve seen 165% increase from the 62 figure quoted on Sunday to the 164 figure quoted by Simon Harris in the Dáil yesterday.

“That, like those numbers are in keeping with a pandemic that is unfettered, that’s the three-day doubling time that we had at the very beginning and it’s because there are these people in tightly congregated settings that have no capacity to social distance.

“And haven’t really been given the capacity to social distance.”

He added:

“When someone tests positive in a direct provision centre, they are moved out of that centre. But of course that does leave people they were tightly congregated with, that leaves their contacts, that leaves other people within the centre and just because the person who was symptomatic that was tested has been moved out of the centre, it does not mean that still aren’t people that are asymptomatic spreading the virus in this tightly congregated setting where you can’t socially distance.”

Asked if widespread testing should now take place in direct provision centres, Dr Faller said:

“Yes, it absolutely should. I think we have, so there’s nine clusters, 164 cases now. We don’t know the proportion of people who are infected with this virus who are asymptomatic and given that, given the difficulties with social distancing in these centres, I think testing of all the residents and appropriate isolation would, that would be appropriate.”

Later, he added:

“If testing and meaningfully lowering the density of these centres doesn’t happen soon, then we’re just going to see this doubling time every three days, this massive increase in cases and I mean this isn’t just, this isn’t an issue affects the people in direct provision centres.

“This affects the people in the towns and villages that these direct provision centres are in. As well as being a massive concern for the people in direct provision, it’s a huge wider public health risk. We can’t lift restrictions, if we have active community spread. And if you have any pockets of active community spread, that’s active community spread for everyone.

“In this pandemic what’s bad for any one person, is bad for everybody. This isn’t a disparate group. The virus does not discriminate between groups. So if you have pockets of active infection then that is going to spread within the community.”

Listen back in full here

Related: Problems mount at Caherciveen Direct Provision centre (Michael Clifford, The Irish Examiner)

Yesterday: 164

Previously: “I’ve Seen Some Misleading Information On Social Media” (April 1, 2020)

“Please Start Moving People Now” (March 24, 2020)

This evening.

In the Dáil.

Health Minister Simon Harris confirmed that 164 people living in Direct Provision have tested positive for Covid-19.

He also told the Dáil that 160 healthcare workers live in Direct Provision centres across Ireland.

At last night’s press briefing with the Chief Medical Officer of the Department of Health Dr Tony Holohan, journalists were told that, as of midnight last Saturday, there were 88 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Direct Provision centres.

Meanwhile…

Watch live here

Previously: “Please Start Moving People Now” (March 24, 2020)

Tonight.

Earlier…

This afternoon.

Further to indecision over whether the leaving Cert should go ahead…

Via The irish Times:

The Irish Times understands that a draft Department of Education plan could involve school principals signing off on a process where teachers award provisional grades based on student performance to date.

These grades would then likely feed into a process where final grades could be awarded using a “bell curve” and other indicators.

This bell curve refers to the practice of adjusting the marking process to ensure a similar proportion of students secure the same numbers of H1s, H2s and H3s each year….

Wedgie!

Leaving Cert ‘Plan B’ could see grades based on class rankings (Irish Times)

Meanwhile…

Oh.

Yesterday: Grind Down

This afternoon.

In the Dáil.

Tánaiste Simon Coveney answered a question from Rise TD Paul Murphy.

Mr Murphy asked him about the nature of his reported communications with Keeling’s before seasonal workers arrived in Ireland.

Mr Coveney said, after speaking about Brexit…

“In relation to the Keeling’s issue, which has nothing to do with Brexit. My office was contacted by Keeling’s, merely to ask whether or not the airports were going to close or not.

That was the nature of the conversation and we confirmed that they would not be closing.

And the advice was given to consult with the Department of Health to ensure that it was fully understood, that guidelines that were required in the context of essential workers being brought into the country.”

Previously: Fruit Of The Loon

Rollingnews

This afternoon.

Start your engines.

WIP? Work in progress.

TII? Traffic, Transport Infrastructure Ireland.