Irish Examiner view: We need proactive Government support to Covid-19 crisis

Government have not harnessed the resource of our medical scientists in universities and technological institutes in their response to the coronavirus pandemic 

Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly TD, was tested for Covid-19. File picture:Gareth Chaney/Collins

The Monty Python-esque nature of the launch on Tuesday of the Government’s medium term plan for living with Covid-19 has masked — if that is the right word — a glaring omission in the road map which is to cover the next nine months. Barely a page of this lengthy document concerns itself with testing yet, as Health Minister Stephen Donnelly’s experience shows, rapid testing is essential for a return to normality.

For four hours on Tuesday we had an executive in isolation and a parliament suspended, amid an already decimated judicial system. In effect, all three major branches of Government were rendered inoperative — not a good idea in a democracy.

So far in this pandemic, the Government, health services and Nphet have harnessed the goodwill and commonsense of the people in containing the virus. They have harnessed the hard work and dedication of health service staff in a common cause. They have harnessed the compliance of businesses who have responded with remarkable resignation. 

However, what they have not harnessed in any great numbers is the untapped resource of our medical scientists in universities and technological institutes. The overall response from the Government has been reactive. We need proactive support for researchers to come up with a testing regime that is fast, effective, and can be made accessible to large numbers nationwide. Only then can airlines, travel, and other essential industries and services return to any semblance of normality.