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AT THE MOMENT, there are 650 remote job vacancies, at the very least, here in Ireland.
That’s excluding the IDA’s recent announcement of 100 remote jobs. So why don’t more skilled job seekers in the regions and rural Ireland know about them?
Or to quote a community member of ours: “Every Gitlab job available in Dublin is available in Donegal, I just can’t understand why someone isn’t standing with a giant sign in every town in Donegal shouting this daily.”
This is exactly why we created Grow Remote. We’re a group of community people who started a WhatsApp group in 2018 when we were curious about remote work and how that could help our communities.
As a social enterprise group, we felt aggrieved that no one told us about remote jobs in brilliant companies – companies where remote was a way of working and not a perk.
Slow changes
For years we as community developers have been demanding remote work, but what we really meant was remote from Dublin, and local to us. Remote working from anywhere, as location-agnostic is still new.
So if we have been asking for it for so long and it’s here, why do we not have a town crier? The problem is that there is no-one who would pay a sign holder, a town crier, or anyone else to promote the vacancies.
Because when it comes to remote work, companies don’t need to advertise locally. All of the traditional channels like careers days, local recruiters, or posters in the local shops are redundant.
We need to step in to build awareness. We need the equivalent of the campaigns and programmes we ran when we were building awareness around the internet in Ireland, something akin to Brexit Ready, but for remote.
Today’s announcement
The new government strategy on remote working is a welcome development. After two consultations it has summarised the viewpoints of the many stakeholders.
It is not, however, a magic bullet. Nor could it be. It is a foundation over which we need to solve for two additional challenges – increasing the supply of location-agnostic employment and stimulating demand from all corners of the country.
In increasing the supply of sustainable remote working opportunities we need a shift from remote-friendly to remote-first cultures in Irish organisations.
This is the only way that we can make our hybrid working model of future work for both people and profit.
For years, large Irish employers have done remote on an ad hoc basis. We have over 70 communities of remote workers at Grow Remote and we meet these people regularly.
They have given up on any career prospects, but are happy to settle to live where they love. This is no longer good enough - not for a company’s bottom line and not for the people who should have equal access to employment opportunities.
If your remote teams can’t progress, they won’t stay. And that removes any benefit you could see in remote work aiding talent retention targets. If processes are not designed to be remote-first, only those in the office will be able to perform their job to its maximum potential, so forget about productivity gains.
Founder of Automattic, the company behind WordPress, Mat Mullenweg devised the 5 levels of remote. The top tier is ‘remote nirvana’. He describes this as working more effectively than could have ever happened with 100% in the office. And it is so possible.
Having worked with over 30 companies on the transition to remote – we’ve seen first hand how companies can progress up the levels.
Pushing for a cultural shift
We need to create new distribution channels for this form of employment. We need to stimulate demand from all corners of the country.
Remote has always seemed like an elusive thing that someone should really do something about, sometime. Not only do we need a cultural shift in companies, but we need it in our communities.
When it comes to remote work, our communities are still waiting for a large Irish household name to go remote before it becomes a real possibility they can embrace.
If they get more curious about remote work, they may search online, where some WFH community groups consist mostly of scams and pyramid schemes. There is a big gap between our communities and the jobs that can enable them to thrive.
Have you ever heard of Shopify launching in Roscommon – a €1.5 billion company with 5,000 staff? Why is it that although one of the largest eCommerce sites in the world employs talent all across Roscommon, and beyond, we still don’t really associate the two?
There is still a common local perception that ‘there are no jobs here.’ Is it about seeing a ribbon cut in the local media? Automattic and Gitlab, two of the world’s largest remote companies already employ people all over Ireland, yet there’s no fanfare about this.
This was because when they advertised the jobs, they did so without specifying a location. It just so happened that the best talent was based in West Cork, Westport, Cavan, Leitrim and everywhere in between.
Where do we go from here?
We can talk about the right to disconnect, but if you’re not working in a culture where there is an effort made to include remote workers, you’ll be working longer just to stay visible.
We can legislate for the right to request remote work, but in one company we worked with, 74% of people managers wanted people in the office, and 90% of workers wanted to be out of it. If the culture isn’t there, you can forget it.
Now is the time to build upon the work of the Western Development Commission (WDC), The National Association of Community Enterprise Centres (NACEC), and the government. We need to turn to large Irish companies and get some real leadership in transitioning to remote in a way that works for people, profit, and planet.
Remote.com has dozens of well-paying jobs open now, and that’s just one company, and plenty are non-tech and go from admin to legal and sales. Why haven’t we heard more about that in our social or mainstream media?
Remote work is already here, it’s just not evenly distributed. Covid-19, as difficult as it has been, has proven to all that remote working is possible, overnight. For remote working to become more streamlined, we need new methods of distribution.
We’re still talking about remote work in Ireland as though it’s something someone should really do sometime, but it’s here right now, so how do we do a better job of raising awareness about it?
The announcement today is a very encouraging step to a remote ecosystem. The upside is that as a country we still have an opportunity for first-mover advantage – to do something that hits home more than the mover campaigns that generate so much fanfare. In a new world where these jobs can be anywhere, we can land them locally.
Tracy Keogh is co-founder of Grow Remote.
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There’s hardly a need for an enquiry, Micheal Martin has almost summarised the likely outcome….
Lessons learned, nobody to blame, garnish it with a bit of…
Look over there! misinformation, disinformation, how dare those pesky conspiracy theorists question our makey uppy polices based on absolutely zero following of the alleged science.
What about the magic substantial meal policy?, are you sure that was a thing?
Making perfectly healthy young people get vaccinated or excluding them from a social life?
You must be mistaken, they all got to make an informed decision to get vaccinated to protect the vunerable and weren’t coerced in any way..
Nothing to see here move along, look over there it’s an immigrant and some far right cheer leaders, covid19 that’s so last year..
@Dvsespaña: It’s probably be something like RTE funding. The same as they asked for over a year ago. I’m not sure the end goal with this. Is it to bring criminals charges against some folks or just more paperwork.
@did you every wonder: Don’t forget malinformation.
@did you every wonder: paperwork
@William Slevin: Well said. And then the war in Ukraine started at the end of Feb ’22 and suddenly at the start of March all the restrictions and proof of vaccination, recovery or a negative PCR test were done away with for air travel, just like that! It was down with the ‘Stay at home save lives’ profile pics and up with the ‘I stand with Ukraine’ profile pics. What a joke!!!
@Pól Pot: there’s a Vax for that
@Dvsespaña: on the button…its just like the new enquiry into infant deaths being ran by themselves no independant at all. Even down to the army law this week have a look at the picture of council that the president called …
The taniste is going on about Sudan and today stated he does not know how people can damage a proposed asylum site. It’s time he pulled his head out of the clouds .
The UK inquiry was a farce.
Let’s have a real “ Independent “ inquiry” in this country.
Let’s ask the real questions such as, did the entire country need to lockdown for so long considering Sweden, with a much older population, never locked down and had the lowest excess mortality rate in Europe!
Let’s ask the question why is the excess mortality rate much higher in 2024 in Ireland than it was in any year during the “Pandemic”.
Let’s really see how “ Independent “ this inquiry will be!
@peter o donoghue: I think ur right but the government don’t want anything like that good god someone might be blamed for something and an election looming
@peter o donoghue: That myth about Sweden rearing its ugly head again! Sweden’s excess death rate was 2.5 times Ireland’s. But why let facts gert ib the waybof bias.
@Sean O’Dhubhghaill: like if you so confident in your claims stick up a link to where you are sourcing your information…could quieten down a few.
@William Slevin: No. Worldindata.org.
@damien leen: Sweden’s death toll (excess deaths) during the pandemic was in fact 3.5 times worse than Ireland’s.
Sweden had 8,090 excess deaths in 2020 to 2021 (7,000 in 2020 alone), we had 1,100 excess deaths during the same period. Since Sweden has a population slightly more than twice ours, 10.3 million v 4.95 million, it means we could have had 3,900 excess deaths if we had the same population as Sweden, 3.5 times worse.
“IRELAND EXPERIENCED AROUND 1,100 excess deaths during the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021, according to a new report by the Society of Actuaries in Ireland.”
Data is from this paper: Lindström, M., 2024. Sweden’s excess mortality in 2020–2022 and reporting in the media. Scandinavian Journal of Public Health, p.14034948241239353. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/14034948241239353
So we did well, compared to other countries, and a lot better than Sweden.
Also, the fact that the age of those who died was every elderly, average age 80, and not younger patients, is a testament to the fact we kept the outbreaks under control and hospitals, and especially ICUs,
Before the pandemic, Ireland had c. 120 ICU beds, but were able to increase that to 500 ICU beds, the government spent more than 1 billion paying for private hospital beds to be turned into ICU beds during the pandemic. However, staff cannot be bought.
The staff ratio on ICU should be 1 nurse per patent, but in the UK where the outbreak went out of control, ICUs were overwhelmed and there was a decrease in the quality of care due to fewer staff caring for more ICU patents. This also resulted in younger patients dying. See:
“Exclusive: Intensive care staffing ratios dramatically diluted”
We see this “younging” of deaths in the first wave in England, here:
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/642462f060a35e00120cb12a/fig4a_29mar1.jpg
Note the peak for people >80 years who died in the second wave is much higher than the 1st wave, but the peaks for people <80 who died are almost the same height in both waves, illustrating that more people 80)
So we were able to provide life-saving medical care, not only to all COVID-19 patients in ICU, but other non-COVID-19 patients needing life-saving ICU care e.g., cancer patients, accident victims, people needing ICU care after major operations etc.
@David Jordan: ‘So we did well, compared to other countries, and a lot better than Sweden.’
Initially that may be true, but did you read the link you provided in full? or usual cherry pick?
“Second, parts of the pandemic handling under the new vaccination regime may have been more effective in Sweden in 2021–2022 than in other countries. This second point should be investigated instead of disregarding the shortcomings of the initial Swedish strategy with calculations burdened by substantial residual confounding due to the definition of broad periods for analysis. Such news media reporting of 3-year-period excess mortality may serve to mislead major parts of the public who will not consider the huge differences in year-by-year excess mortality between Sweden and, for example, other Nordic countries. In effect, such reporting will prevent a sound public debate concerning the early Swedish strategy and constructive suggestions to amend the shortcomings.”
@David Jordan:
The initial broad period definitions used in the analysis might obscure the true impacts and effectiveness of the strategies employed. Here’s a step-by-step breakdown of how this investigation can be approached:
1. Identify Specific Interventions and Time Periods: Rather than grouping the entire response into broad periods, identify specific interventions (e.g., school closures, restrictions on gatherings, travel bans) and analyze their effects individually. 2. Refine Data Collection and Analysis. Granular Data: Collect data at more granular time intervals (e.g., weekly or monthly) to observe the impact of specific measures. Control for Confounding Variables: Use statistical methods to control for confounding variables such as demographics, healthcare capacity, and socioeconomic factors. 3. Comparative Analysis: Compare with Other Countries: Compare Sweden’s approach with countries that had different strategies, adjusting for population density, healthcare system differences, and public compliance levels. Regional Differences within Sweden: Examine variations in outcomes within different regions of Sweden to understand local effects and responses. 4. Longitudinal Studies: Conduct longitudinal studies to assess the long-term impacts of the strategies on public health, economy, and social wellbeing. Include considerations of secondary effects, such as mental health issues, delayed medical treatments, and economic disparities. 5. Dynamic Modelling: Utilize dynamic modelling techniques to simulate different scenarios and predict potential outcomes of various strategies. Incorporate real-time data to adjust models and predictions.
By refining the approach and using more precise data, the investigation can provide a clearer picture of the effectiveness of Sweden’s initial COVID-19 strategy. This detailed analysis would help in understanding the true impact more effectively.
@Tom L: Just to point out, that to catch up with Sweden, it would require us to experience 2,800 excess deaths in 2022. However…
There were 34,844 deaths in 2022 (1,026 excess deaths) and 35,459 deaths in Ireland in 2023 in 2023. An increase of 615 deaths over the previous year, and thus 1,641 excess deaths (Sweden also has excess deaths in 2022, but not quite as pronounced as us).
Why did this happen? It is possible that elderly people who survived the pandemic in Ireland due to lockdowns, whose deaths were postponed when flu and other preparatory viruses were suppressed, had their deaths postponed to 2022. The lockdowns delayed their deaths by several years.
On the other hand, elderly died early in the pandemic in Sweden, in 2020 mostly, and excess then decreased a little compared to us. The weak were removed from the population.
Imagine shaking a tree in the autumn, the autumn leaves fall off of the shaken tree. Then, the next day when there is a breeze, fewer leaves fall off than a tree you shook. This is Sweden.
We then ask was it worth it to give several thousand people 2 years more life?
However, a note of caution.
Between 2016-2022 our population increased by 394,139, and it increased again between Apr 2022 and Apr 2023 by another 97,000. That’s an increase of nearly half a million, or +10%. And that would cause an increase in yearly deaths of 10%. If we did not also grow older.
However, our population is growing old.
Census 2022 additionally shows that the number of persons in Ireland aged 65 years and over increased by 22% between 2016 and 2022, and within this category, the highest increases were among those aged 75–84 years (+28%) and 85 years and over (+25%).
Increased population and an ageing population contributes to a rise in deaths, and excess deaths, if using simple yearly average calculation that negates the effect of population increase and an ageing population.
Thus, the excess deaths in recent years (2022–2023) are overestimated because they did not take into account these trends.
Indeed, the UK’s Office for National Statistics introduced an updated algorithm for calculating excess deaths that compensates for population trends.
The effect of this updated algorithm is seen on the two charts near the bottom of the page, for before, during and after the pandemic. This resulted in a downward revision in excess deaths in recent years on both charts.
Thus, it is possible we did even better than Sweden than simple averages imply.
@Tom L: Also, here’s the Z-Score from Euromomo, and Excess deaths from the Human Mortality Database (2024); World Mortality Dataset (2024); Karlinsky and Kobak (2021), and The Economist, for Ireland and Sweden for 2022 to present.
We see similar levels of excess deaths in both Sweden and Ireland, but more COVID-19 deaths in Sweden than Ireland. There is no big excess of deaths in Ireland for 2022, contrary to CSO stats.
You can find this data and more Here: https://ourworldindata.org/excess-mortality-covid#
He still doesn’t call the banks bailout a bailout.
@Bryan: Course not, and he never will……its why he wont be leader come the next GE, hes like a bad smell the FF backbenchers will move on soon as they can cos with him there they will take a kicking
@Tom Newell: I’m not sure about that. His party got the most seats in the very recent local elections. And the only other party to run enough candidates to lead a govt are SF and they have been losing support.
@9QRixo8H: local elections is parish pump politics, when it comes to the main event and the mud slinging from FG and SF are aimed at MM, he would be toast. Imagine standing up in the dail and declaring we never bailed out the banks, the kick in the teeth to all those who suffered after the crash or forced to emigrate due to it…..
@9QRixo8H: local elections are completely different to a ge
@William Slevin: William, are you’re looking for the source of somebody’s claim ? Oh the irony.. Lol.
@William Slevin: What specifically would you like a link to as a source of information to anything I’ve said.. ???
@William Slevin: oh I see you did, eventually, post a couple of links to, amongst other things, an opinion piece in the WP.. an impressive dossier none the less !! I’ll look into them and get back to you…
@William Slevin:Nope, I don’t know where he got that figure from.. he’s repeated it now so often, its kinda become one of those ‘facts’. Suppose thats how misinformation is spread, and new ‘facts’ are established isn’t it… unless of course its true .. then providing a verifiable link shouldn’t be an issue..
The government who rolled out the scamdemic on behalf of their masters are now going to have an enquiry into how they managed the scamdemic. Brilliant
@Tommy445: How was it a “scamdemic” as you call it? Please enlighten us!!
@Tommy445: the LWO (left world order) ran by a reptilian overlord master introduced the billgatesdemic and only we know the TRUTH, right Tommy? You won’t hear that truth from the msm!!!!
Well we know the legal profession is literally drooling at the prospect of the money from this. If this anything like how we did tribunals, the only ones paying in the end will be the taxpayers for the bill of a back and fourth show betwen the crowd in the dail pretending they arent all cut from the same pen and trough….
The first question should be why did they tell the people that if you took the injection you would stop the transmission of the the virus. When asked in the European Parliament the Pfizer Vice President J Small said that they never tested their vaccine whether it stopped transmission.
@Jimmy Bean: Vaccines reduced transmission. The average percent reduction in transmission for the Alpha variant due to vaccination was approximately 74.1%, and the reduction in transmission for the Delta variant was approximately 47.3%.
Alpha Variant, vaccine effectiveness against transmission:
Zaidi et al. (2023): 81%
Meyer et al. (2021): 67.2%
Average reduction: 74.1%
Delta Variant, vaccine effectiveness against transmission::
De Gier et al. (2021): 51.5% (average of 63% and 40%)
Zaidi et al. (2023): 26%
De Gier et al. (2021): 64.5%
Average reduction: 47.3%
And while older vaccines were not as effective at preventing the spread of Omicron (50 to 60 mutations), there are now updated vaccines specifically for Omicron that likely help reduce its spread too. Also, the combination vaccination + prior or breakthrough infection provides a strong and long-lasting immune response that help recede transmission, this immune response is stronger than that seen in unvaccinated naturally infected individuals.
Studies show that individuals who are vaccinated and later get infected with Omicron exhibit very large increases in antibody levels and neutralizing (T-cell) activity against the Omicron variant. And Vaccinated individuals showed higher anti-Omicron spike antibody levels immediately after infection compared to unvaccinated (naturally infected) individuals (Lee et al., 2022).
Furthermore, breakthrough infections in triple-vaccinated individuals (two vaccines and one booster) enhance blood and mucosal (nose & throat) immune responses against Omicron subvariants, significantly mucosal antibodies (IgA) that line the nose throat, and the lungs, reduce the risk of infection, and help reduce the spread of the virus (Hornsby et al., 2023).
Other researchers discovered the same thing: They found that hybrid immunity (prior infection then vaccination) or a breakthrough infection (vaccination then infection) provides a strong and long-lasting immunity, superior to the immunity seen in unvaccinated naturally infected individuals. See e.g. Jergović et al., (2022), Kaku et al., (2022) and Erice et al., (2023). Their research confirms that the combination of vaccination and infection reduces the risk of further infections and transmission (of course someone might say, but I caught it twice, three times, after I got the Jab, but I’m talking about a c. 80% reduction, no total immunity)
See:
Lee, H.K.,et al., 2022. Prior vaccination exceeds prior infection in eliciting innate and humoral immune responses in Omicron infected outpatients. Frontiers in immunology, 13, p.916686.
Hornsby, et al., 2023. Omicron BA. 1/BA. 2 infections in triple-vaccinated individuals enhance a diverse repertoire of mucosal and blood immune responses. medRxiv, pp.2023-01.
So Vaccines reduce transmission, sometime substantially so, but their ability to prevent transmission eroded somewhat as new variants arrived, and fewer people got vaccinated with the updated Omicron specific vaccines.
That said, robust scientific evidence shows the combination of vaccination and infection helps reduce the risk of future infection and transmission, by eliciting a strong immune response that is superior to the immune response caused by a natural infection in unvaccinated individuals.
Enhanced hybrid immunity, vaccination + infection, is why Omicron is no longer a threat, and we exited the pandemic.
References:
The variants went as follows: Wuhan Dec 2019 to Dec 2020, (vaccination starts), Alpha Dec 2020 to May 2021, Delta May to Dec 2021, Omicron Dec 2021 to present.
de Gier, et al., 2021. Vaccine effectiveness against SARS-CoV-2 transmission to household contacts during dominance of Delta variant (B. 1.617. 2), the Netherlands, August to September 2021. Eurosurveillance, 26(44), p.2100977.
Zaidi, A., et al., 2023. Effects of second dose of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination on household transmission, England. Emerging infectious diseases, 29(1), p.127.
de Gier, et al., 2021. Vaccine effectiveness against SARS-CoV-2 transmission and infections among household and other close contacts of confirmed cases, the Netherlands, February to May 2021. Eurosurveillance, 26(31), p.2100640.
Meyer, et al., 2021. Two Doses of the MRNA BNT162b2 Vaccine Reduce Severe Outcomes. Viral Load and Secondary Attack Rate: Evidence from a SARS-CoV-2 Alpha Outbreak in a Nursing Home in Germany.
Eyre, et al., 2022. Effect of Covid-19 vaccination on transmission of alpha and delta variants. New England Journal of Medicine, 386(8), pp.744-756.
Mumbles said that it was up to the three leaders to decide when the Covid inquiry should be….. Why? Surely it is in the remit of the Minister of Health to do that.
Also asking someone who said that we “got through eighteen other variations of Covid” to make a decision like that is madness.
@Ollie Fitzpatrick: which 3 leaders,
varadkar – gone
ryan – gone
martin – what’s an enquiry
The “new” party leaders will say it wasn’t on my watch so not my call, but lessons learned etc etc etc
The buy a pizza so you can have a pint rule was laughable
@Nigel Hayden: Only akin to the 2010 Free Cheese policy, and that worked really well, didn’t it?
It’s not an inquiry
It wasn’t a bailout
If it walks like a duck,
swims like a duck
quacks like a duck
then it’s obviously a seagull
All the elderly people who were locked up, died or had their lives changed forever deserve an enquiry.
That will go nowhere !!
The people that were in charge then are still.in charge.
They would come out with lesson learned at best.
Even Ursula got re-elected….
He’s covering for butcher tony before the enquiry even starts
Experts say the extreme weather events in Coolock are the result of climate change.
I think the old people that were gathered up from hospitals en masse and shoved into under resourced nursing homes to die alone deserve an inquest, never mind an inquiry. This government seems to have forgotten about them. It sounds like a back patting exercise. More akin to a PR stunt than a proper analysis. Absolutely disgraceful
Imagine being that bored you still talk about that time when there was a flu outbreak.
@Daniel Skelton: it’s about the lock downs and the forced poison.
Ireland Own is conducting a Covid Enquiry?
Wrong focus.
The deliberate attempt to create a chimera virus that is more infectious to humanity is far more important than a distraction of a lab leak versus natural occurrence.
The English pursued natural selection (herd immunity) as a policy until it discovered the difference between mathematical modelling and real life. We pursued modelling but as a restrictive social measure.
@Gerald Kelleher: Wasn’t that the plot of Misson Impossible II? In my view, the best one.
@William Slevin: If you’re going to be spitting that much truth then ya may start sorting out the old your, you’re thing. And they’re, there, their. Please. You’re giving truth a bad name. It’s unreadable sometimes and you could learn it off in an hour probably lad
Did all the nurses get a the 1000€ promised by the government
Navel gaze
The majority of people who passed with covid during the first and second wave died in the nursing homes. There were no excess deaths in Ireland during that period according to the OECD. So it seems NPHET may have failed in its duty of care to those elderly patients they removed from hospitals and left in nursing homes. This is potentially malfeasance. It’s of a very serious nature and should be the main focus of an enquiry. This knees up MM is floating is an affront to the memory of those people who were so cruelly treated by NPHET imo
Another cover up by Fianna Fail & Fine Gael, to match Letterfrack, Mother & Baby Homes & the Magdalene Laundries. Micheal Martin doesn’t want any formal investigation or inquiry, mainly because himself & Leo Varadkar would be found to have been negligent in opening up Hospitality & travel in the December/Jan. period that allowed the UK Variant swamp the country causing thousands of needless deaths. These people are guilty but are so cold & callous, they have no qualms about the thousands who died needlessly, just like they have swept the RTE Corruption under the carpet, they will do so with this. No trust in anything in Ireland anymore, it’s rotten to the core & run by a few for their own benefit. This is another shameful period.
@SV3tN8M4: viruses don’t take the ferry John. Countless billions of them are swept up and around in our atmosphere, being deposited thousands of miles away in a single day cycle – The study, carried out by researchers from the U.S., Canada, and Spain, is the first of its kind to confirm viruses are being swept up into the free troposphere — the layer of atmosphere between the area where Earth’s weather systems develop — and below the stratosphere, where airplanes fly.
@Darth O’Leary: Are you actually that stupid, there were direct linkd to those travelling from the he UK to major outbreaks on this island. I forgot your an apologist for Micheal Martin, maybe Micheal was swept up the same way, into the atmosphere & landed in Ethiopia this week, lol, the FF sleveen’s out in force.
A bunch of corrupters
@jacintha DUMBrell : what a load of scutter! Loads of commenters on here at the time wanted people that chose not to have the vaccine JAILED!! The carry on of people on this site was ridiculous and not just this site, all over the country. We weren’t anti-vaxxers as you all demonised us, we just didn’t feel safe getting the vaccine. Ye roared from the rooftops for the “repel the 8, her body her choice “, but not a word of this when it was our body, our choice for a vaccine! A holes where I worked during Covid wanted anyone that wasn’t vaccinated to be sacked and we were only trying to make a living like anyone else! What went on was terrible. So I hope these people that were condemning us remember and think of what horrible human beings ye were/are and I hope ye are ashamed of yourself
@den: the ones screaming for those to be jailed are the same ones who called the water protesters dole spongers and think unless they are told to believe stuff by the media or the mob in the dail then its not true and you are a troublemaker……these folk likely are part of the reason the politicians/bankers/developers literally got away with nearly destroying this country in 2006….cos ah sure wasnt there fault it was everyone elses
@den:
You didn’t feel safe getting the vaccine? How do you think the old and vulnerable felt during the pandemic ? This wasn’t all about you, none of us knew anything about the vaccines but we trusted the experts and took them so as to protect others. If anyone needs to feel shame it’s you and your selfish decisions, now go wash the blood off your hands.
Interesting reading the comments on this article. The subject still fuels a certain group of commenters / type of reactions.
I think Ireland did a pretty good job during Covid. And I will include most of Europe in that too. With the information available, the low level of preparation for an event like this I believe they managed it as well as could be expected, if it was a survey I would give them 3.5 out of 5 stars.
@Tom Brennan:
I agree with you.
It was unprecedented.
A virus that hit the world out of the blue,and countries had to put in place the best means to protect their citizens.
It was a worldwide fight to find the best vaccines,and the safest ones.
Tony O Houlihan ,and government ministers came on air every evening,and gave us an up to date on the situation of the pandemic,and the changes required.
There was trojan work put in place to keep everyone safe.
Unfortunately people died as they did across the world.
Compared to a lot of other countries like the U.S.Italy,and many more we have done the best we could have done in such a situation
Had we stuck our heads in the sand like Trump did in the U.S.by denying it , we would have had a lot more deaths on our hands.
@Mary.E.: we knew it was contagious watching Italy but then left in Italian rugby fans to match that ended up cancelled knowing it spreads rapidly we removed elderly people from hospitals put them in homes without pe gear or enough staff untested thousands died on this policy do u still think that really stupid deci was trojan work
@Tom Brennan: problem was they did well at the beginning but as time went on they just caused more harm than good, the 9 euro meal, 2km restrictions, gardai stopping people walking on beaches, getting caught in the merrion gate hotel and having the bloody AG bail them out, meaningful christmas, the nursing homes fiasco, the lack of any meaningful reforms from what is a clearly over loaded with management and paper pushing HSE but lacking actual services and staff…..id give them 2 out of 5 at best
@Mary.E.: Sweden didn’t lock down, lock people up, got on with their lives and had far LESS deaths.
Another ball of money down the drain to answer what we already know same crap never changes
Those who did a fantastic job deserved to be honoured. Imagine a SF government for Covid- horrifying
@John D Doe: Yes those who decided that a 9 euro meal was a great policy to fight covid, while moving elderly patients from hospitals to nursing homes without testing at the beginning of the covid nightmare should def be honoured…..glad its only long shinner sydrome that effects the brain of yourself.
@Tom Newell: Not forgetting the MEANINGFUL CHRISTMAS (Martins very own Xmas gift) when the ports, shops, bars and nightclubs were opened prematurely, re-invigorating the epidemic,
causing a wave of fatalities across the country.
@GEORGE STAGG: who could forget that nugget…..oh wait the people who would vote the lad leaders who pushed for it back into power if they could. But sure they will deny it ever happened like they tried doing with the bailout
Ask Anna Anna
Martin is such a weasel.
A more important issue that has all but been ignored after the deaths of millions to a virus with so many different symptoms and long-term effects on the human body.
“We civilised men, on the other hand, do our utmost to check the process of elimination; we build asylums for the imbecile, the maimed, and the sick; we institute poor-laws; and our medical men exert their utmost skill to save the life of everyone to the last moment. There is reason to believe that vaccination has preserved thousands who, from a weak constitution, would formerly have succumbed to smallpox. Thus, the weak members of civilised societies propagate their kind. No one who has attended to the breeding of domestic animals will doubt that this must be highly injurious to the race of man.” Darwin
The opportunity to remove prejudice and unwarranted academic influence is behind many of the comments, not shouting into the air, hoping reasonable people will show up and identify the dangerous influences and imbalances presently hidden behind outwardly respectable appearances.
Natural selection would be seen today as far-right politics, but that Victorian prejudice imperative comes from the same people who assert that temperatures are under the control of humanity using carbon dioxide as a thermostat, representing left-wing politics.
Once again, the Royal Society subculture is unpleasant, not because dismantling it takes effort but because of its dominance among commenters and how the proponents of the subculture project their influence through the education system.
An independent panel made up of members of political parties who are going to say that the government were excellent and made all the correct decisions when really they made an absolute balls of it all like they do with everything they touch . Hospitals failed and collapsed under pressure. The tourism sector was in a dire state due to their stupid rules. Eg have to buy a meal to have a pint . Aviation destroyed. Housing in tatters. Fair play boys and girls in the dail. That includes the shinners. They are worse
@Patrick Khan: I would like to point out the consequences of the lockdown we see in children and teenagers, as it is often reported how they are suffering from social anxiety due to lockdown, home / remote schooling and in some cases from physical development issues on account of lack of outdoor exercise.
Either those reports are exaggerated (check with CAHMS) or our decision makers have a lot to answer for.
I wonder how many people were actually brought to court and fined for breaking the Covid rules. Perhaps there are statistics somewhere on the subject.
I know there was major publicity at the time about checkpoints and raids on pubs and restaurants but in hindsight was it all just spin in order to frighten people into complying.
Personally I don’t know of anyone who ended up in court while on the other hand I know people who were “ advised “ to return home when they travelled outside the designated limits.
Open the pubs.
It’s just the fix the anti-vaxx / conspiracy addicts need, 2 years on and they are still crying about very limited restrictions that were in place for a few months in 2020. It all just smacks of extreme privilege.
@Jacintha Dumbrell: as a nation we have to ask why we are such gullible sheep? Why do we accept the dictates of a government that cannot fix potholes? Or why are we accepting orders from outside organizations with dubious objectives?
@Jacintha Dumbrell: You def are sniffing glue because we were under lockdowns till the summer of 2021 where unless ya had a pointless vaccine pass you could dine indoors or travel. And also we need to ask why the elderly were locked away from loved ones like animals in nursing homes for so long many dying alone cos nobody was allowed come visit. My elderly parents were terrified to even hug their own grandkids at one stage cos that poxy RTE and the never ending wheel of misfortune of experts said it could be fatal. The elderly more than anyone have suffered cos we told them for 2 years not to leave the house and then had to literally do radio and tv ads saying they need to leave. But please tell us this is all for the anti vax crowd
@Tom Newell: wouldn’t waste my time responding to that troll. Pops it’s head up every now n then to say something it knows will get a reaction
Has anyone any idea of how many thugs were arrested or pepper sprayed during the criminal damage to the fencing along the canal . Nobody see.s to have appeared in court over this. .
Looks to be different laws for different people
@joe tobin: Far Left are sitting in the Dail & it’s acceptable, PBP advocate violence. Macron has no problem with the Far Left & the Communists in power in France, people seem to have forgotten the Millions killed by Communism. People don’t want any extremes, but mainstream politics has abandoned ordinary working people in Ireland & across Europe, the result is people turning to extremism, which will eventually lead to war.
Who the heck is he to say how a public inquiry should proceed!! Surely he needs to keep out of it and not influence the outcome of any inquiry. This is absolute madness
Copy UK one, paste do forget change the font ! And replace word NHS by HSE I’d iot
The Irish covid19 inquiry will be held in the supreme court. Read about it at data-analytica.org/supreme-court.htm
While it is overwhelmingly accepted that the vaccines worked and saved lives, it’s incredible and frightening that there still seems to be anti-vaxers out there !
have your say