Current Covid-19 restrictions 'will be enough', says Donohue
Paschal Donohoe, Minister for Finance, also said he does not yet know how much bringing in hotel quarantine will cost the state, and it will take a number of weeks to put in place. File Picture: Moya Nolan
Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe has defended the new Covid-19 restrictions announced earlier this week.
There have been rumblings in both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael that the measures do not go far enough, however, Mr Donohoe disagrees, insisting they are sufficient.
His remarks come in the wake of tense parliamentary party meetings held by both parties. At the Fine Gael meeting, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar told members he expects the country to move to 'Level 4 with modifications' when the current measures elapse on March 5, with keeping schools and childcare services open remaining a priority.
Some members at the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party meeting told the Taoiseach Micheál Martin that stronger measures were needed regarding the border and international travel.
Mr Donohoe said the current measures are "really significant". He said he does not believe a full mandatory quarantine is required, and that current measures "will be enough".
"We are bringing in a form of mandatory quarantine into a country that values openness so much as a society and as an economy, but given our experience with this disease, given the progress that has now been made, and the risks that we still have it is really important that we put these measures in place," he said.
"As we move through February, I believe, if we keep up with our efforts, we will see the spread of the disease continue to fall, but we will see our hospitals, and our health workers and nurses and doctors, continue to be dealing with such difficult circumstances, and we will tragically still see the loss of life.
"In those circumstances, these measures are necessary, but the government will always keep them under review, to see if they need to be amended, or indeed strengthened in a future context."
Mr Donohoe said he does not yet know how much bringing in hotel quarantine will cost the state, and it will take a number of weeks to put in place. He said he expects it to "be a very low figure" in the context of the overall Covid-19 spend.
He added, "We do have to respond back to around 0.5% of all of the cases of Covid that we have at the moment are related to international travel."
Mr Donohoe reiterated that "the living Covid plan" that the government launched last year, is still the framework for how they plan to lift Ireland out of lockdown, adding they will "look at very very gradual changes."
The Minister added that the government has a very strong plan from a vaccine point of view however the ongoing row between the EU and AstraZeneca oversupply is a disappointment.
"I believe the European Commission is taking the right approach in dealing with this issue," he said.
"This is a drug after all that we co-funded the development of through a programme to help purchase it in the future.
"Having less of this drug will of course be a setback to us, but by Sunday gone, we have still delivered 143,000 vaccinations in our country.
"Even if there is a setback with the supply of this drug, we still expect to have 1.1 million vaccines available and that will allow us to start vaccinations, for our most elderly in our communities.
"By March we will have completed our vaccination programme for over 65,000 care homes and for our frontline health workers.
"When we get into April, May, and June, we're confident that will be a significant increase in the supply of vaccines from existing, and maybe even other suppliers."
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