Government's Covid-19 response lacking 'urgency, leadership and common sense'

Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald criticised the Government's stance on the Leaving Cert and international travel.

Sinn Féin President Mary Lou McDonald TD criticised the government's Covid-19 response during leaders questions. File Photo:Gareth Chaney/Collins

The Government has been accused of being "at sixes and sevens" on its response to Covid-19.

Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said that the Government's announcement yesterday that a Level 5 lockdown will continue for at least another six weeks had created fear and uncertainty. 

She said that the Government's lack of "urgency, leadership and common sense" had led to distress for many, particularly Leaving Cert students, adding that those students want "fairness, choice and an alternative method of assessment". 

However, Ms McDonald said that the Government's biggest mistakes had come on international travel.

"You have presented half measures which do not go far enough. It not alone goes against public health advice, it goes against common sense."

She said that it was "not a system of quarantine, but a system of voluntary isolation".

"You propose sending people back to homes where they may be with other people. People who may be going out to work or our shops and stores and risk the spreading of this virus. That to me is absolutely crazy. 

"One behaviour which cannot be countenanced is international travel, which must be knocked on the head. The strongest message the Government can send is to make 14-day quarantine mandatory."

Ms McDonald said that the Government plan was "unenforceable" and "put all hope in people's discretion", calling for a full mandatory quarantine for all arrivals. She said this would show the Government "means business" in protecting people.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin, however, said that there would "be no half measures" from either him or his government. He said that the Government would do "whatever it takes to keep the numbers down when we get the numbers down" and to protect lives amid the pandemic. 

Mr Martin left the door open for legislation around the quarantine measures announced last night to be expanded to apply to more people.

"The key reality for me is that there are thousands of frontline workers who are working long hours to protect us. When we get these numbers down, we can never allow them back up. 

That will mean a long period of suppression of the virus. That means I do not want to hear in this house with special pleading for this sector or that sector. 

"We've simply had too much of that."

Mr Martin said that Ms McDonald had called for pubs to be opened in September and said she had "done whatever is fashionable" throughout the pandemic.

Social Democrats co-leader Catherine Murphy asked the Taoiseach for his view on international variants of the virus, saying that they had not arrived in Ireland without international travel.

"This variant didn't arrive on a south-easterly, it came on a plane or on a boat," she said.

Independent TD Thomas Pringle said that he had put in Freedom of Information requests to the Taoiseach's department for records of discussions between the Government here and the North. He said the responses had shown that no records exist.

"There is no transparency, no accountability, no urgency," said Mr Pringle. "Just lies and spin."