Irish Examiner View: We may face a choice between reopening schools or pubs

Stephen Donnelly and Simon Harris warn that moving to phase 4 too hastily could lead to a second wave of Covid-19 in Ireland

The prospect of a second wave of Covid-19 in Ireland is compelling us to ask if socialising really matters more to us than education. 

Unconnected, difficult situations often evolve in the same way. There are patterns in how conflict gathers momentum and, eventually, reaches a climax. Today there are two active, obvious if unrelated examples. The Covid-19 pandemic and the Brian Cowen saga each started with relatively small, all-too-easily-ignored, road bumps. Then, as more and more information became available, each saga demanded more attention. When it became obvious that each had widespread implications, the options on how we might respond became, all of a sudden, limited. The wriggle room shrank with every development, every new detail. All choices were and are — and will remain — hard. No observer can predict how the stories end, though anyone who hopes they will just peter out, that we will develop a kind of political or Covid-19 herd immunity, is hardly alone.

As a crisis evolves, managing information becomes ever more important. Information and language can be weaponised in game-changing ways. Getting a good, widely-accepted, and plausible balance between the carrot and the stick is important. That juggling was in play yesterday when proposals around how the economy might be re-primed became public. One suggestion is that the Government's stimulus package will extend a modified wage subsidy scheme until next April. The scheme may be broadened to include those currently unemployed and seasonal workers, but the State's contribution may be cut to make it possible to extend it. The timescale extension is hardly insignificant either.