Alison O'Connor: Too serious a time for politicking — we have a virus to contain
Pandemics suck. There are none of us that need to be told that, but sometimes it helps just to say it out loud.
What doesn’t help though is the idea that we are being poorly served by our government at this time of great need.
You could lose count of the number of people who wistfully remark how much they miss “Leo and Tony” being at the frontline of our public response. There is no doubt but the former taoiseach Leo Varadkar and the Chief Medical Officer Tony Holohan did a super job in exceptionally difficult circumstances during those first few months of our lives being invaded by Covid-19.
It is human nature that we associate them with the time when we were in the dreaded lockdown, yet united in a common purpose; everyone looking out for each other. It seems an odd word to use in this context, but there is also an element of us romanticising both them and that period.
Dealing with current times and the medical side, first, the acting Chief Medical Officer Ronan Glynn has done a really fine job of stepping into his boss's shoes. Bearing in mind he was alongside him from the beginning, and immersed in our response since then, the man must be utterly shattered at this stage. But he still keeps going and is be admired.
Politically it is, to say the least, a far more complicated and dangerous situation. The use of the word dangerous here is in the mortal sense, meaning that political jostling could result in the deaths of more people from Covid than there would be if there were smooth relations behind the scenes between the party leaders of Fianna Fail, Fine Gael, and the Green Party.
A major step was taken this week when, very significantly, the Government resisted a full return to lockdown, as advised by NPHET. No more the comfort blanket for the politicians of saying they are “following the public health advice”.
There was an inevitability to this with politicians having to ultimately decide on what the public will tolerate, and trying to keep the economy open with the health service being able to operate and schools to re-open.
But what is really worrying is that when we have reached such a crucial crossroads, there is chaos and party politics going on behind the scenes.
Acknowledging there is a strong element of a no-win situation when you are delivering yet more bad news to a population sick to the back teeth if it, the fact remains that communicating that message so poorly helps no one.
He may have only worked a short time as a teacher but there was a strong element of “Muinteoir Micheál” on view at that government media briefing held on Tuesday to announce the details of the new restrictions.
There were any number of “open goals” for the media to tackle given the inconsistencies in terms of what we can and cannot now do. A far more practical and effective approach would have been to start off the briefing by levelling with people on how things may subsequently come across, but that with the rapidly rising virus numbers it was a very difficult thing for Government to avoid another lockdown, yet also try and reduce virus numbers.
The Taoiseach was openly tetchy at times. You could almost see him pulling himself back from that. He stood there along with Health Minister Stephen Donnelly, Green Party leader Eamon Ryan, and acting CMO Dr Glynn. It must have stuck in the Taoiseach’s craw to have to answer a question at the briefing about the Tánaiste’s absence from the stage, and to deny that it had any significance.
What did have significance is that Fine Gael chose not to put anyone up in his stead, as well as the glaring absence of FG ministers from the airwaves in the aftermath to explain the new Covid regime.
It’s hardly too much of a stretch to attribute the Taoiseach’s barely concealed crankiness to the day that he’d put down, prior to that evening briefing. His prima donna Tánaiste had put him through the wringer. Leo Varadkar had phoned in to the Cabinet meeting from his holidays down the country. That vacation is greatly deserved, however that physical absence no doubt contributed to events.
"If we keep doing business like this, we won't be doing business for very long," Leo apparently told Micheál during the Cabinet meeting.
This charge appears to centre around the Cabinet memo, which contained details of the various new Covid proposals, being received by the Tánaiste just minutes in advance of the Cabinet meeting. Confusingly, and somewhat illogically, was the fact that a cabinet Covid subcommittee meeting did not go ahead in advance of the full Cabinet meeting.
Given how poorly the new message was subsequently communicated and received, this meeting going ahead could have greatly improved matters.
To put this in context a meeting had taken place the night before with the Taoiseach and Dr Glynn. It followed on from the NPHET meeting on Tuesday to discuss the actions that needed to be taken. Given the absence from Dublin of the Tánaiste, his chief of staff Brian Murphy attended.
Other officials were also there. During this meeting, the decisions were considered on what public health advice to accept and what to discard. These agreed details were what was then contained in the Cabinet memo.
It was also apparently put forward by Mr Varadkar’s representative that rather than just have, as previously planned, a meeting of that Cabinet sub-committee the following day, a full Cabinet meeting was needed. This was agreed.
But now we hear that Leo was protesting that smaller meeting being cancelled — even though it was said to be his idea to do so? If you’re confused as to the logic here it means you are indeed keeping up. Why didn’t Leo just pick up the phone to the Taoiseach at any stage?
One Fine Gael minister, citing holidays and general confusion said they were unaware, until afterwards, of “some of the stuff that went on” on Tuesday but acknowledged “a big price” had been paid by the Government.
Is it simply too reactive to think Leo Varadkar just can’t get used to being second in command, especially when his party continue to trounce Fianna Fail in the opinion polls and his own political capital is seen as far higher than that of the Taoiseach?
It must rankle. Surely, though, he also acknowledges that under his stewardship Fine Gael had a very poor general election; if there was no pandemic he may well have faced a second election and an even poorer result.
He would do well to take on board the words of the man who is, whether he likes it or not, now his boss. Micheal Martin told the briefing on Tuesday: “Let us not forget the reason we are here, it is our desire to kill this virus and prevent it from causing illness to many more people.”
This is not the time for politicking.
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