Foreign holidays unlikely this summer, says Chief Medical Officer

Michael O'Leary: 'Nphet and the Chief Medical Officer, if he was doing his job properly, should be holding a daily press conference announcing how many people have been vaccinated, not issuing scare stories of numbers of people in hospital.'

Chief medical officer Tony Holohan has dampened expectations of foreign holidays this summer and rejected Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary's accusation that Nphet is causing "mass hysteria".

Mr O’Leary accused Nphet of disseminating “scare stories”, saying the expert group is terrifying people with daily updates on Covid-19 deaths and hospitalisations.

Mr O'Leary also claimed the airline industry would bounce back this summer, with people taking holidays abroad in July, August and September.

"Summer 21, we will still see millions of people travelling to the beaches of Europe in July, August and September, when everybody over 50 will have been vaccinated, and the risk of sickness, hospitalisations and deaths from Covid will have significantly receded," he said. 

Mr O’Leary said the fear around travel this summer is partly due to Nphet’s communications and — despite 1,000 deaths and 100,000 cases recorded in January and with the youngest victim aged just 25 — he said there “aren’t lots of young people getting sick and going to hospital”.

He said: "Part of this is due to Nphet miscommunication, their daily press conference trying to terrify the population," he added.

"The reality is the UK will have everyone over 50 vaccinated by March, Ireland needs to catch up, hopefully by the end of June.

“Nphet and the chief medical officer, if he was doing his job properly, should be holding a daily press conference announcing how many people have been vaccinated, not issuing scare stories of numbers of people in hospital," Mr O'Leary said. 

In response, Mr Holohan rejected any allegation that Nphet was causing hysteria.

“I don’t accept that. Our advice is a clear interpretation of the data that we see. That is the job we do, and we stand over it. I stand over the work Nphet has done and the advice we have provided,” he said

Chief medical officer Tony Holohan rejected any allegation that Nphet was causing hysteria. Picture: Sam Boal

Dr Holohan stressed that holidays were considered non-essential travel.

I don’t think we are headed to a summer where millions of people from Europe can expect to be heading to beaches other than in their own localities." 

Meanwhile, it has emerged that a fifth of complaints around Covid-related flight refunds are still unresolved.

Questions around refunds arose yesterday when the Irish Travel Agents Association (ITAA) flatly contradicted Mr O’Leary’s assertion that there were no delays or backlog to customers getting their money back from his airline.

Mr O’Leary told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland that “every customer who has requested a refund has received it”.

This was disputed by ITAA chief executive Pat Dawson, who accused Mr O’Leary of engaging in “spin”, claiming it was “not true” that everyone who wanted a refund has got one.

When asked by the Irish Examiner about outstanding customer claims for refunds from Ryanair, the aviation regulator said it could not comment on specific airlines.

However, the Commission for Aviation Regulation (CAR) confirmed that it had received 4,000 complaints related to EC 261/2004 since the beginning of the Covid-19 disruptions and more than 20% are unresolved. 

Earlier yesterday, Cork business leaders rallied around the region’s airport, insisting it must be protected and enhanced after Mr O’Leary signalled his doubts about its future.

"We don’t think there will be a recovery in Cork. It will be delayed because there's a very high cost of operations in Cork... we need much lower costs,” Mr O’Leary said.

A Cork Airport spokesperson declined to address Mr O'Leary's comments, but was bullish on its future, saying it was moving ahead with major capital works such as a runway reconstruction in 2021.

Cork Business Association president Eoin O’Sullivan said the airport remained “a vital piece of infrastructure for the region”.

“We are confident that it will recover,” he said.