Michael Clifford: Government messaging is muddled and uncertain at a time when people crave certainty

The new public health guidance have left some scratching their heads. Now is the time for clear strategy and clear messaging, Michael Clifford writes. 

The message is not so clear. Picture: Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly TD, Taoiseach Micheal Martin and Minister for Climate Action, Communication Networks and Transport Eamon Ryan TD at the post-cabinet press briefing at Government Buildings in Dublin. Julian Behal.

There may be method to the madness but you have to look hard to find it.

Last Sunday, the acting chief medical officer (CMO) Ronan Glynn laid out the future in plain terms. 

“This cannot continue,” he said, of the rising number of cases of infection by the virus. 

“This pandemic isn’t over just because we are tired of living with it.

“We must all learn to behave and interact in a new way over the coming months so that Covid-19 cannot take root in our communities again.” 

Mr Glynn’s suggestion that the general public has grown tired of living with the virus is entirely accurate. Tiredness has set in, along with constant worry and stress. The future is completely unwritten in a way never experienced before.

In such a milieu, the country is now being instructed to take a few steps back to arrest the spread of the virus. The government has issued new guidelines in how we must react to this developing reality. And to top it all off, the messaging appears to be muddled and uncertain at precisely a time when people are craving certainty.

For instance, those over 70 are being asked not to stay in hotels, yet are told that they may go on vacation. Does this confine that demographic to vacationing in holiday homes? What of the vast majority who don’t have access to such options?

Your child can attend a summer camp but can’t host a birthday party in the home for any more than a couple of friends.

You can play a football match but can’t attend one. You can go to mass but are advised not to stand on the sideline if your child is playing a game. Maybe you could organise to have an open air mass on the sideline where you can divide attention between prayer and playing.

No evidence has been presented that the small level of attendance at sports events over the past month has led to a spread of the virus.

You can’t have more than six people around to your home, but you can walk into a restaurant where there might be 50.

You are being asked, or instructed, to avoid public transport, yet no evidence has been produced that the virus is active on buses or trains.

“Avoid sharing cars with people from another household,” is another guideline.

“Wear face coverings if this is not at all possible.” 

How exactly are low paid workers, many of them non-nationals, supposed to go to their essential work in meat factories in rural Ireland without sharing cars?

“There will be an enhanced level of enforcement to ensure that workplaces, venues and organisers of activities adhere to the guidelines,” the national programme says.

This enforcement, we are told, will be reinforced with legislation providing the gardaí with new powers. This is aimed, in particular, at intervening in house parties. A little problem arises there in that the national parliament is not due to reconvene until 15 September, two days after the provisional end of this phase of measures. Apart from that, the likelihood is that the kind of powers being mooted would be highly contentious and might even require a constitutional amendment.

On the face of it, the populace craving certainty has been subjected to uncertainty through mixed and confused messaging. This has been exacerbated by reports from cabinet of deep divisions over how to go about tackling the virus at this stage of the pandemic. Far from providing leadership, the confusion, anger and division that appears to be blotting large tracts of society is now being replicated in the cabinet room.

Unfavourable comparisons have been made with the “all together now” sentiment propagated by the government and largely embraced by society at the outset of the pandemic. 

Of course, it was a fallacy that we were all in it together. Those at the lower socio-economic rungs of the ladder – and particularly migrant labour – were always far more exposed to danger.

But at least there appeared to be some unity of purpose at the time and the last government was credited with both clear messaging, and actions. 

At this juncture of the unfolding drama, these assets have been replaced by weariness that has led to complacency. Everybody is sick and tired of this damn thing and the growing realisation that it’s not going away anytime soon.

So the government is tasked with delivering to the public a boot up the rear end, telling us that it’s time to cop on and do so without delay. Pulling that off was never going to be easy. Come down too hard and you begin to lose the public. Tip-toe around it, and the message that things are serious now simply won’t be picked up.

To that extent, the government appears to have brought in measures that will inconvenience the public but not disrupt the slow march back towards a new reality. That is a difficult task which might explain the mixed and apparent contradictory messaging.

So maybe they are all at sea, floundering around at a time when real leadership is required. Or perhaps they do know what they are doing, but circumstances dictate that clear and concise messaging is not possible at this point.

However, even if they are entitled to a provisional pass on the messaging, two other elements to current policy and action are seriously deficient. How can the state not be up to speed in testing and tracing at this stage of the game? The excuse proffered is that demand shot up over a short period of time, yet we always knew that this would be possible, if not probable. There is no excuse for the current delays that are being reported.

The other issue is the handling of the government’s main plank of policy at the moment: the return to school. Whatever about mixed messages on the new measures, there has been precious little message at all on the return to schools.

Right now, the country needs reassurance that all is on track and that the government is on top of the matter. Yet what is sorely lacking is visibility of those in charge, particularly the education minister, Norma Foley.

Her brief appearance on the 9 O’Clock News on Tuesday concluded with a shot of her running back to the safety of the department building. The messaging in that area would want to start picking up and pronto.