Special Olympics - Athletes ban shouldn’t be cast in stone

WITH only 29 days to the Special Olympics, Health Minister Micheál Martin is under intense pressure at home and abroad to reverse his controversial ban on teams from SARS hotspots coming to Ireland.

With hundreds of fatalities, there is no doubt this illness has to be taken extremely seriously. And therein lies the dilemma facing Mr Martin.

He justifies his ban on public health grounds. But politically speaking he is in a Catch 22 scenario, damned if he does and damned if he doesn’t lift the travel veto.