Taoiseach meets with Tony Holohan in bid to repair relations

Taoiseach Micheál Martin has met with the Chief Medical Officer in an effort to repair relationships after a fraught start to the week. Picture: Julien Behal/ Damien Storan

The Taoiseach has met with the chief medical officer in an effort to repair relationships after a fraught start to the week.

Micheál Martin told the Dáil during Leaders' Questions that he had met with Dr Tony Holohan on Wednesday morning after the Tánaiste Leo Varadkar launched a stinging attack on the CMO and Nphet on RTÉ television on Monday night after they had recommended that the entire county be moved to Level 5 restrictions.

"I met with the chief medical officer this morning," he said.

"We had a pretty good discussion again, and I paid tribute to his commitment to the country and the selfless way he has come back to help the country, in relation to the pandemic, and we both share a clear determination to get the country through Covid-19 with the help of everybody in this society."

Dr Holohan had just returned from months of compassionate leave after his wife was taken into palliative care in England, and Sunday's Nphet meeting, at which the move to Level 5 was recommended, was his first day back on the job.

The meeting between the two men on Wednesday morning was part of the Covid oversight committee to discuss stronger enforcement around Level 3 restrictions.

"We're particularly concerned about Northern Ireland, now a significantly challenging situation, with very, very high numbers, but clearly overspill into the Republic and the consequences that could be there so we have to deal with that as well.

"We're looking at the whole area of fines for example, in terms of traffic and so on like that."

The Dáil also heard that as of Tuesday night, the Government received 17,000 new claims for Pandemic Unemployment Payments as the country moved into Level 3, rocketing from around 2,000 claims, per day. The Government is expecting 40,000 to 50,000 extra claims from the move.

"Government has taken that on board, and will have a very, very high deficit this year of over €20bn-plus, and more, and obviously, we'll be recalibrating fingers.

"The economic consequences are significant, but for individuals and people are very significant in terms of losing jobs. 

"We want to try and be fair to all concerned, and have people earning support under the pandemic unemployment payment that's close to what we're earning prior to losing their jobs in the first instance."