Irish Examiner view: They’re called computers...

Fighting Covid with pen and paper

Fighting Covid-19 with a pen and paper is disconcerting. 

For years and years, there was a certain roll-the-eyes understanding afforded to the idea that the State's computer systems were a mismatch of unproven variations on a theme.

Like any corporation finding its way towards a new modus operandi, a certain clunkiness was to be expected. Elements of the health services system were not interactive. The revenue commissioners and welfare service could not communicate via out-of-kilter computers, they needed a Rosetta Stone. The ridiculously expensive and underutilised Garda Pulse system seemed all too often no more than a way to record imaginary drink driving tests or cut favoured drivers' penalty points.