Tag Archives: COVID-19

Yesterday evening.

Fergal Bowers, of RTÉ, tweeted:

Beware of this dangerous scam: Do not click on the link. If you get such a text, delete the text but also alert family & friends to this – especially the elderly. This is not how the HSE would contact you, if you were a close contact.

Regulations signed by Minister for Health Simon Harris

In the last few moments.

The regulations signed by the Minister for Health Simon Harris last night, giving effect to extraordinary Garda powers this weekend, have been posted on the Department of Health’s website.

They can be downloaded here.

More as we get it.

EARLIER:

From top: a Garda checkpoint in Phoenix Park this morningGarda Commissioner Drew Harris and Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan;

This morning.

The Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan spoke to RTÉ’s Seán O’Rourke in light of new regulations coming into force at midnight which have enabled gardai to punish people who fail to heed Covid-19 restrictions. The legislation was signed into law two weeks ago.

Breaches of the restrictions could result in fines of up to €2,500 and six months in prison.

It followed the Minister for Health Simon Harris telling RTÉ’s Prime Time last night that, after the current affairs programme, he would sign the regulations to ensure gardai had the powers “in their back pocket” should they be needed.

Mr Harris’ appearance on RTÉ followed a meeting he held with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, Mr Flanagan, Garda Commissioner Drew Harris, Attorney General Séamus Woulfe and Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan earlier in the evening.

The regulations have yet to be published.

This morning’s interview by Seán O’Rourke focused on people who may wish to travel to their holiday homes this weekend.

Seán O’Rourke: “First of all, why the delay, why has it taken so long to get these regulations signed? I mean the Commissioner was on I think This Week, 12 days ago or thereabouts, saying they were going to come on very quickly?”

Charlie Flanagan: “These regulations were complex, they had to be very carefully legally drafted and of course people had to be consulted. Can I thank you, Seán, for having me on the show. And can I thank, through you, the people of Ireland, for their compliance and their forbearance. This is the fourth week now of these stringent, emergency measures. We’re not there yet.

“We still, unfortunately, have cases increasing. We still unfortunately have deaths increasing. We’ve some of the way to go yet. And that’s why we have these emergency regulations now being brought into force.”

O’Rourke: “Yeah. The, just can you clarify. There was mention there by [former Attorney General, former Minister for Justice, former Tánaiste and Senior Counsel] Michael McDowell and indeed I think by [former Garda …] John O’Brien, they’re in existence only until Easter Sunday. That’s a four-day period. Now, OK, they can be re-introduced but why is it such a short span?”

Flanagan: “Well I didn’t listen to all of the texts and calls to your show so far. But it seems to me that the trend is from holiday villages, from scenic areas, from places where tourists frequent and there is a concern therefore, a concern that I share, that compliance may be difficult to sustain now over the coming days with particular reference to the holiday period, the fine weather, the fact that some people maybe coming a little complacent now that we’re into the fourth week.

“So it’s important therefore that the gardai have clarity as to the regulatory arrangements and another reason why Minister Harris signed these regulations into law last night.”

O’Rourke: “Yeah, can I just clarify one thing. A question put forward, and a good one as well, by one our listeners. Can the gardai knock at the doors of holiday homes and send the people there back to their main residences? That’s from Martha in Cork.”

Flanagan: “Yes, my understanding is that regulations can be enforced in terms of movements. And there is quite an array of restrictions on movement that everybody in the country is aware of and that 99.9% of the people of the country have ben fully compliant with. So yes, there’s a restriction on movement, on people who do breach that restriction, can be ordered home and also, of course, the restriction on events in terms of gathering of people in numbers.”

O’Rourke: “So if you’re in a house other than your own, by definition, you have moved there so you can be asked to return to your regular residence. Is that allowed for?”

Flanagan: “Yes, people may well be required to stay at home. They may well be impeded in their travel. You know, the holiday weekend car, with the roof box and the bucket and spades in the back, the gardai will be mounting some checkpoints. I understand the Garda Commissioner will be holding a press briefing later on this morning but he will also be impressing, as I am now, that there is no change in the Garda strategy.

“What the gardai will continue to do is engage and encourage and explain and assist people. But if there are one or two people, or a very small number of people who wish to deliberately flout the regulations and thereby endanger the public health of people, well then the law will be there as a recourse but as a last recourse for the Garda Síochána.”

Later

O’Rourke: “There’s a report today suggesting that one of the reasons it took so long for the regulations to emerge, and also why they are on such a short time-limit, is because some of your colleagues felt that they really were a step too far?”

Flanagan: “Well, they are a last resort. They do comprise restrictions on liberty of a type that we haven’t seen before. But they do amount to a response to the emergency situation that we are now in. As I said to you earlier, Seán, the vast majority of people in the country have absolutely nothing to fear here. The vast majority of people have been most compliant with the advice of Dr Tony Holohan which has been put into legal effect in terms of guidelines and regulations by the Taoiseach and the Minister for Health.

“What we’re saying is that we want this to continue because we want to continue to flatten the curve and save lives. And also ensure, in the meantime, that our health service is in a position to cope.”

Later

O’Rourke: “I suppose, again, people will be wondering, as they inevitably do, you know, how they can work their way around, find a loophole in the regulations and so forth. I mean like how it will work in practice, for instance, if somebody is stopped by a garda and they say ‘guard, look I’m going to the pharmacy for medicine’. You know the guard will presumably have to take them at their word?”

Flanagan: “Well, there will be an element of discretion on the part of the gardai. But each case will be judged on its own merits and the member of the Garda Síochána will be in a position to make inquiries and will be in a position to draw inferences from the circumstances of the, of the conversation with the individual involved.”

Listen back in full here

Previously: Locking Down Our Civil Liberties

Rollingnews

UPDATE:

Meanwhile, the Irish Council for Civil Liberties has released a statement, calling for the extraordinary police powers not to be used. The statement says:

“Any heavy-handed enforcement of the regulations carries serious dangers for the relationship between Gardaí and the public, especially around asking for documentary proof of employment.

“Criminalising those who do not comply could clog up the criminal justice system at a time when courts are closed but for urgent cases and prisons are trying to achieve physical distancing.”

In addition, ICCL Executive Director Liam Herrick said:

“The approach of An Garda Síochána up to this point has been based on consent and has been for the most part successful. We urge both Government and Gardaí to continue this approach. The vast majority of people have been observing the advice to stay at home and restrict movements to what is essential for the past two weeks.

“So it is not clear that there is any demonstrated need to move from consent to enforcement and we urge the Garda Commissioner to make it clear that the introduction of these regulations does not lead to any significant change in the operational approach of the Gardaí.”

ICCL: Extraordinary police powers should not be used (ICCL)

UPDATE: 

Mr Herrick, speaking to Claire Byrne on RTÉ’s News at One, made the following point:

“What we would be saying is that the commissioner now needs to issue operational guidance that we maintain the current practice, that there shouldn’t be a significant departure at this stage and that that policing by consent with the trust and confidence of the people is the most successful way that we can go forward.

“I think, firstly what needs to happen here, of course, is that the regulations need to be published. The public need to see these and the minister obviously made them available to RTÉ last night but the public haven’t seen them yet.

“I think it’s very important that there are safeguards put in place, too. Every single use of these extraordinary powers should be recorded and the Policing Authority should be involved in monitoring their use to make sure that they’re evenly used and also, as the minister and commissioner have said, sparingly as well.”

Earlier, RTÉ’s Crime Correspondent told Ms Byrne that RTÉ had seen the, as yet, unpblished regulations.

Listen back in full here

Oh.

This morning.

Spotted in Dublin.

Niamh Kiernan tweetz:

Time to take advertising signs off our buildings, streetscapes and urban spaces?

We’re probably going to start seeing more of this in the coming weeks and months…

Um.

This afternoon.

RTÉ’s Mary Regan tweetz:

Four out of five (82%) Irish adults agree that the Government is doing a good job in handing Covid-19 with “strong agreement” with this far higher among older people, according to Behaviours and Attitude-commissioned survey for RTÉ.

Meanwhile…

Earlier: Unknown Knowns

Last night.

On RTÉ’s Claire Byrne Live.

Ms Byrne put it to Dr Colm Henry, Chief Clinical Officer at the HSE, that the official figures may not reveal the “whole story” about the prevalence of Covid-19 in Ireland.

Ms  Byrne suggested that because of the delays and changes in testing criteria, and because Ireland isn’t testing people who are asymptomatic, there must be a lot of unknown cases in Ireland.

Dr Henry admitted that Ireland could “never, ever” pick up every single case of Covid-19. He said the purpose of testing is to trigger public health actions which are designed to stem or halt the transmission of the virus.

During their discussion, they had this exchange.

Claire Byrne: “I suppose my question is how do we know we’re bending the curve, when we don’t know how much of this virus there is out there?”

Dr Colm Henry: “Because our modelling takes so much more into account. It takes in, as I said, data coming into acute hospitals. I takes into account trends in intensive care units, we know, looking at the trends in admission to intensive care, it is not as steep as we feared a week or two ago. It is too early to say it Claire, how sustained that will be.

“And again that message is there, that each and every one of us have the power to save lives, to prevent people getting critically ill and to avoid healthcare workers getting sick when we need them.”

Watch back in full here

Meanwhile…

Anyone?


The government’s COVID-19 Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme payment is taxable, warns financial planner Eoin McGee

This morning.

On RTÉ’s Today with Seán O’Rourke.

Financial planner and author of How To Be Good With Money Eoin McGee warned listeners who are signed up to the COVID-19 Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme that the payment is taxable and that they may face a tax bill at the end of the year.

Mr McGee’s contribution to the radio show followed Mr McGee posting a video about the same on social media.

This morning, he told Mr O’Rourke:

“People do need to be aware that there is tax due on this. This is not a tax-free payment. There is tax due on it. Nobody is collecting on your behalf right now and what I would say to people now is that the right thing to do here is to take, about 30 per cent of it is a reasonable number.

“So for every €100 you’re getting, put €30 of it aside, put it in a little war chest if you want to call it, so that if the taxman comes looking for it you can give it back in one go. That’s the ideal thing to do here.”

“…I think, you know the problem is Seán, I think that the reality here is that if you’re employer is signed up to this, they’re trying to protect your long-term future in that business and they have concerns and they are being diligent about making sure that they can keep the show on the road.

“The reality is that the alternative for your employer could have been that you didn’t have a job at all and, I just, there are people in that position as well, and they will probably sign up to holding back 30 per cent.

“I know this is hard, I know people are getting a real cut in their wages but what you don’t want to do is rob from the future to look after today. You don’t want a problem. You don’t want to get out of this and then have another problem faced with to try and pay the money back.”

During his discussion with host Seán O’Rourke, Mr O’Rourke read out a statement from Revenue which stated:

“Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme payments are liable to income tax, USC and PRSI. However, the subsidy is not taxable in real time through the PAYE system during the period of the subsidy scheme. Instead, the employee will be liable for tax on the subsidy amount paid to them by their employer by way of a review at the end of the year.

“Where a PAYE worker owes tax, it’s normal Revenue practice to collect any tax owing in manageable amounts by reducing tax credits for a future year or years in order to minimise any hardship.”

Mr McGee added:

“People don’t realise if your tax credits get adjusted next year, you are going to pay more tax next year because of the tax you didn’t pay this year. Take a proactive approach and put the money to one side if you can at all possibly do that.”

Meanwhile…

Listen back in full here

Wage Subsidy Scheme (Gov.ie)

CEO of the HSE Paul Reid, letter from Digital Rights Ireland to the HSE

Yesterday.

Further to a report in the Business Post by Susan Mitchell and Aaron Rogan on March 29 last that the HSE will be rolling out an opt-in “mobile phone tracking and tracing app” that will allow people to be notified if they were in close proximity to people who tested positive for Covid-19…

Digital Rights Ireland has written to the head of the HSE Paul Reid (above) asking to discuss the HSE’s plans for this app “and other digital initiatives” over a videoconference call.

It’s been previously reported that the HSE has been in contact with the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner about the track and trace app.

However, details of the app are not clear in terms of what information will be used, how and where this information will be stored and with whom it will be shared. It’s also not clear if the roll-out of the app will be subject to a time limit.

In its letter, Digital Rights Ireland, who successfully argued in the European Court of Justice in 2014 that laws requiring ISPs and mobile phone companies to log details of a phone user’s location, their texts, emails, internet use, and to store that information for up to two years, was a breach of privacy,  also asked for Mr Reid to provide it with the app’s Data Protection Impact Assessment.

It’s also not clear if such an assessment has been carried out.

Meanwhile, last night…

Phone tracking app set to be used as next step to fight Covid-19 (Susan Mitchell, Aaron Rogan, Business Post)

Previously: Track And Trace

G’Wan De Digital Rights

This morning.

YOUR Prayers and hopes were answered!

RTÉ’s Ryan Tubridy returned to his RTÉ Radio One show after recovering from Covid-19.

Give him a raise.

Previously: ‘Tested Positive’

‘Persistent Cough’