Calls for extra Covid Commitee hearings after 'frustrating' Government messages

Sinn Féin's Pearse Doherty TD. Picture: Sam Boal/RollingNews.ie

Sinn Féin’s finance spokesperson Pearse Doherty has called for extra hearings of the Oireachtas Covid Committee.

Public confidence had been undermined by the contradictory messaging coming from the Government, he told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland.

Mr Doherty denied that this was party politics and said that the opposition had been very supportive of Government actions to date, but they had a responsibility to “call out” issues.

This virus threatens all of us, this virus doesn’t look at party lines.

For months Sinn Féin had been calling for further testing in meat plants, but the Government had not acted. He also questioned the rationale for limiting participation and spectating of sport and he queried why there was no information explaining the decision to limit such numbers.

“It isn’t clear enough. There needs to be an explanation about the risks to public sport. It doesn’t make sense and that’s frustrating.” 

The number of #COVID19 cases that we have now in Ireland is substantially more than we were seeing even just a few weeks ago.

On average over the past 5 days we have reported 96 new cases. Our 14 day incidence now stands at over 23 per 100,000. 1/12 pic.twitter.com/480rLpJFGy

— Dr Ronan Glynn (@ronan_glynn) August 19, 2020

Mr Doherty said that the chair of the committee, Independent TD Michael McNamara agreed that there should be extra meetings and was awaiting confirmation from the Clerk of the House to see if such meetings could be facilitated.

Both the Minister for Health and the Minister for Education needed to come before the committee to explain recent decisions, he said.