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LAST UPDATE | 12 Nov 2021
THE NATIONAL PUBLIC Health Emergency Team (NPHET) has recommended the extension of the Covid vaccine passes to sectors outside the hospitality industry and that government should advice more home-working.
Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan has written to Health Minister Stephen Donnelly following a meeting of public health officials yesterday, amid concerns about the rising number of Covid-19 cases.
It is understood that the letter recommends the widened use of the vaccine certificate, although no specific sectors have been cited.
It is also expected that NPHET will advise that people should work from home if possible and socialise less.
It comes as a further 3,680 Covid-19 cases were confirmed yesterday.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said that the government will consider NPHET’s recommendations on Monday and Tuesday.
Speaking in Galway, Martin said that the main thrust of NPHET’s advice was around mask-wearing and “restricting socialisation”.
“Numbers are increasing and that is a concern and therefore he main import of NPHET’s advice is on all of us to restrict socialisation, to monitor our behaviour, very strong on mask-wearing, particularly in outdoor sporting events that masks would now be worn, in large crowds and in congregated settings,” the Taoiseach said.
For people who who have vulnerabilities or underlying conditions, that medical grade masks would be worn and that we generally overall try and reduce socialisation, then cumulatively that would have an impact.
Patricia King, general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU), said the government should follow public health advice.
“Congress has always taken the view that we should support public health advice,” she said.
NPHET met yesterday to consider a range of measures to tackle the rising case numbers and Holohan hinted during a press conference on Wednesday that a recommendation for people to work from home could be on the table.
The government has since September adopted a phased return-to-work policy.
Earlier on Thursday, Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly said that a change in advice was not something the Government is “actively considering”.
Asked today about NPHET’s advice that more people should work from home, the Taoiseach said:
In respect of the return to work, which we had announced in September a phased return to work, CSO estimates that’s at about 50% right now, NPHET are advising that we would consider, that government would consider, changing that advice. Now government will consider that early next week, on Monday and Tuesday and we’ll give consideration to that advice.
Martin also referenced the expansion of the vaccine booster campaign and “extensive testing”, both antigen and PCR, as methods of dealing with a surge in cases.
In response to the advice surrounding work from home, Sinn Féin’s employment spokesperson Louise O’Reilly TD said the government needed to “listen to the advice and prioritise safety for workers”.
“While some employers and managers are continuing to exert caution and allow workers to work from home, others are seeking a full return to on-site working, and in the face of increasing Covid case numbers, such decisions are unnecessarily endangering workers,” she said.
Take action
Earlier today, Director of Public Health at HSE Midwest Dr Mai Manix said that the country needs to take action that “would prevent us getting” to the stage where another lockdown is introduced.
Speaking on Morning Ireland today, Mannix said: “NPHET has issued the advice about working from home. Government will make that recommendation … so we would support that.
“The other thing I would say is it’s really important for people to wear masks if they are at work.”
Mannix added: “We have to focus on what we can actually achieve and there’s a couple of key messages of what people can do at the moment. Obviously people need to get vaccinated. If people still have queries or haven’t had their original two doses, just please contact your GP and deal with your questions.
“It’s very important that people go for their booster at this time, this is the best protection we have against hospitalisation and serious disease. You know, 65% of those in ICU are unvaccinated. So that’s a really straightforward action that all of us can take.”
Mannix echoed advice from Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan for people to reduce their social contacts.
“Go to the pub once a week, instead of twice a week. If we all collectively do a little it will have a big impact at a population level.”
Mannix noted that in the midwest, for instance, there has been “a large increase in the number” of Covid cases.
“Our infection rate has doubled over the past month, in between October 27th and November 10th, we’ve had over 3,500 cases.
“Obviously, like everyone else, we’re delighted to see society open but we’re at a particular juncture at this point in time where our cases in the midwest and across the country are rising really in all age groups.
“Except, thankfully, we’re seeing a reduction in the over 85-year-olds, probably due to the boosters,” she said.
Working from home
“That’s about one in every 200 people in the country, man, woman and child, has been identified as a new case in the last week,” Donnelly added.
“Let’s do the thing we can all do, which means we don’t need to shut things down, which is to reduce our social contacts and get this disease back under control.
“It doesn’t mean not having your Christmas party, what it means in the round, when you look at everything you’re doing, do the things that are most important to you, and the more discretionary ones, just for now, just cut them out.”
Covid certs
Meanwhile, Catherine Martin, Minister for Tourism and Culture, said the HSE’s hotline for Covid-19 may be tailored to allow people to report hospitality businesses that do not ask for Covid passes.
“Regarding the calls for a hotline, where a person has a concern that the requirements of the regulations are not being complied with, he or she may communicate this via the HSE live helpline on 1800 700700,” she told the Dáil.
“It should be noted that anybody doing so would have to press number three, which is the other issues category.
“It might be useful to tailor the helpline to allow members of the public to report specific instances in a more targeted manner.
“This is something we will communicate to the Department of Health as the HSE is under the remit of that department.
“It will be a subject of discussion between officials in the Department of Health, the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment and my department.”
Martin said firms which break the rules could face a fine or the threat of closure.
“We are appealing to businesses that are not checking for certificates, because it is not fair to the other businesses and it is not fair for public health,” she added.
“For both reasons, to protect public health and to help the businesses that have been through such a tough time to keep their businesses open, everybody should abide by the rules.”
Contains reporting from PA, Christina Finn and Michelle Hennessy.
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I’m all for seeking out renewable alternatives but the fact is this cannot be established over night, none are perfect or capable of meeting Ireland’s and indeed Europe’s needs. Nuclear solutions are the best options at the moment but no one will accept these so we must rely on solutions like gas with a medium term objective to wean off fossil fuels.
@Wreck Tangle: No one will even consider the safe, clean, low carbon nuclear solution so instead Ireland will continue to invest in intermittent renewables backed up by dirty base load due to ignorance and irrational fear.
No wind & dark winters mean we continue to rely heavily on gas, peat, coal & oil. No wonder oil & gas companies are so fond of renewables.
@Wreck Tangle: sorry but the environment needs change and it needs it now. No more excuses.
@Brendan Cooney: sorry but your desire for immediate change no matter the human consequences is not very important and is not supported by the democratic structures in either Ireland or the EU. So without bothering to offer any excuses, please rest assured the facility will be going ahead as planned and will afford us the ability to import and store LNG at a far higher rate in future.
@Brendan Cooney: you miss the trnasition require gas, First we need remove Peat, then coalm, then OIl. Gas is essential in every single transition plan and gas itself has an abilty to have hydrogen and green gas added to it. Add in carbon capture and storage and only the uniformed would have an issue with gas being the low carbon fuel irelands requires as we add renewables and try to electrify everything!
@Brendan Cooney:
100% agree Brendan but the only viable transition is that all countries migrate rapidly to nuclear options. The wider public will never accept this and in fact we are generally seeing the opposite with countries that produce nuclear energy.
@Wreck Tangle: The wider Irish public need to be educated correctly about the benefits, safety and real risks of Nuclear Energy.
But not by hysterical liars like Helen Caldicott or local scaremongers like Adi Roche whose CCI website continues to spout lies about Chernobyl and its impact. Love this little nugget from CCI website “Scientists feared that a further explosion could occur, producing a force of three to five megatons, and exposing the whole of Europe to enormous radioactive contamination.”
Imagine a thermonuclear yield from steam explosion FFS
@Gavin Tobin: Nonsense the waste remains toxic for millions of years – even the US has major problems disposing of the waste and look at Japan about to dump massive amounts of nuclear waste into the sea having already dumped huge amounts.
@Wreck Tangle: im madsively opposed tofracking for a fg she fought back against climate crisis unlike her party fg
@GO GREEN: Yawn…toxic & radioactive are different.
Nuclear is safest, cleanest power generation available by any metric and takes responsibility for it’s own waste rather than discharge into atmosphere.
Nuclear opponents are contributing to climate chaos and playing into hand’s of oil & gas industry.
@Gavin Tobin: You’re right on this. We really need the Greens to come up to speed on this, like their colleagues in Finland. Every and any idiot in the energy business knows Gen 4 nuclear is the only way this climate issue is going to be solved worldwide. Exponential increase in coal burning out in Asia. Air travel and data storage going wild. Wind and solar are largely subsidy harvesting scams with terrible load factors. So say Schellenberger and Hansen who persuaded Clinton and Obama to put 200 billion dollars into wind and solar, and now realize it was all a disaster. We have to get over this Homer Simpson at Mr.Byrne’s Springfield Plant syndrome. Three units at Moneypoint and one in each of the peat station locations, with all the waste heat going to massive new hydroponic vegetable, flower and fish enterprises, to put Holland to shame. Five minute Youtube tells all.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ju59gcdmdvI&t=150s
@Nicholas Grubb: that’s not true, name one Irish expert saying it’s a solution for Ireland.
I never once came across one and worked in the energy sector and research for years.
Where’s the picture from lads? Sim city 2000?
@Todd Unctuous:
Comment of the week!
@Todd Unctuous: Sim City 2020! :)
Ireland needs this facility badly, we are the last country on the western supply grid and if things get anyway tight in relation to supply of this vital energy supply we will be the first country for which they will turn the off the tap.
Fracked gas accounts for a very high percentage of gas supplies across the globe, it accounts for somewhere around 70% of gas produces by the USA. People saying that the current supply that Ireland receiving is not from fracked gas supplies it absolute balderdash.
@Brian Fitzgerald: Nonsense it will be used to power data centres – fracked gas emits huge amounts of methane heating up the planet as Arctic disappears and West Antarctica begins to disintegrate. There is enough renewable power to power Ireland twice over.
@GO GREEN: “There is enough renewable power to power Ireland twice over”. Maybe. But not when the wind isn’t blowing. Or did you forget that nugget? If we left energy policy to Greens alone we’d be back in the Stone Age and all using compostable toilets. We do not have the capacity to store renewable energy in sufficient quantities to provide power when the wind isn’t blowing. Therefore we need fossil fuels for the time being. Or nuclear. But you’re ideologically opposes to both no matter what the science says.
@GO GREEN: no , no there is not “enough renewable power to lower Ireland twice over”.
Where did you get this idea?
We have enough resources in renewable mainly wind to achieve most of our electricty from it but it would be replacing gas and it’s dependent on weather.
Then electricty is only 20% of energy so we still have to replace the other 80%.
Anyone who thinks Ireland doesn’t need gas has zero idea about the energy transition Ireland requires.
The best thing we could expect is 3% of TPER a year and currently we are at 11% overall. So after ten years we still only 44% TPER renewable.
And we in reality we might achieve 2% a year. That leaves us at 31% by 2030.
So no just no there is not.
@Brian Fitzgerald: We are happy to sell you our fracked gas and oil to assuage your sensibilities. Go wook go broke!
@John R: You have never heard of wave energy or solar or geothermal or battery storage either I suppose and there very few days in Ireland when the wind is not blowing.
@GO GREEN:
What happens when there is a two or three week winter, blocking high pressure event, which tends to be a whole of Western Europe occurrence.? The only way we can do this world wide is to have a power source that can keep the fossil fuels including fracked gas, in the ground, and until in fifty or one hundred years time, we have fusion, Gen 4, mass produced modular nuclear is the ONLY answer. Anyone who hasn’t even bothered to look up the difference between this type and the previous ones, needs to get educated.
@Nicholas Grubb: gas. That’s the only plan and nobody in any public body is looking at nuclear.
@GO GREEN: wave energy has no indication of ever contributing to renewable energy production.
It’s a we need more funding for the next breakthrough energy.
Reality is we don’t need wave energy and offshore wind is more than sufficient.
Battery storage is not an option for longer than a few hours , not a solution.
Hydrogen gas produced For excess wind is a likely solution.
Another reason we will and we need to keep gas as it can and will have it’s carbon content lowered in the future and even now it’s low carbon compared to electricty.
No has no power for Ireland, assuming we go EV In future also.
@Rory Mac Daibhéid: Check out S Australia if u do not thing battery storage is a solution.
Good. The Shannon LNG terminal should have been built a decade ago. It must be built now, post-haste. The Irish people need energy security.
@J. Reid: Its for data centres not the Irish people.
@GO GREEN:
How do you know it would just be for data centres? its not in article.
@GO GREEN: now that’s a well-conceived economic strategy for success. Where would you prefer those data centres to be? Northern Ireland, the UK or elsewhere in the EU?
@Dermot Killian: They only provide a minimum of jobs and use the electricity of a small city, they can go where ever they like, but stay out of Ireland.
@Maurice: It was well documented in a Sunday newspaper a few months back.
@Dermot Killian: there is practically zero return for the taxpayer having data storage centres with the exception of the initial build (a carbon heavy process also). Data centres have extremely low employment levels and consume huge amounts of energy.
It will be no use looking for Wallace and Ming when yo are sitting in your living room trying to keep warm with a candle
@Euro is Dead: Eamonn Ryan will make it illegal to sell candles, like the smoky coal and the diesel cars.
Mark Ruffalo and his peers I presume are donating all they have towards r&d renewable projects?
This fracked gas will be imported from US and Canada on native land against the wishes of the native Canadians – it will also be used to power data centres that provide very few jobs but need enough electricity to power a small city. This gas is raising emissions on a day in which 120 mile chunk of ice fell off Antarctica.
@GO GREEN: good we could do with some global warming right now as far as I am concerned.
@Dermot Killian: That is exactly what we are getting, warmer waters fuelling more and more powerful storms, not real Winter of weeks of dry hard frost weather like we used to get decades ago.
LNG will be needed in the changeover to renewables.
For example ships that used heavy fuel oil are being forced to use alternatives LNG is the best option until hydrogen comes online.
Why do we care about Mark Ruffalo?!
Build a nuclear plant and stick it in Roscommon. Let’s export energy and be self sufficient at the same time, for the first time, with all profits ring fenced for investment in renewable energy.
@Sean Fahey: you can’t put up a sign in this country without someone objecting so what chance would a nuclear plant have and bear in mind that windfarms are being objected to all over the place.
@Derek Lyster: change the planning laws so that the Dail can approve projects considered of national strategic importance such as sporting stadiums, data centers, runways and power plants.
@Sean Fahey: Needs to be a UN law that over rides local laws. We must get over the “planet Ireland” syndrome. Modular Gen 4 could be dropped into any existing thermal plant to replace the coal or gas or yes peat. The UK /Canadian Moltex plan is for a large extra body of molten salt, that can better fill the gaps in the wind, which only has a load factor of 35%.
All to be pushed forward by a damn good UN levy on aviation kerosene and ship’s bunker, where at present there is none.!
Wonder if FG had won the election how she would have voted…….
@Padraic O Sullivan: English team soccer America type o
The ff rep is stating the USA energy indepence line / energy security same thing it will lead to morefracking and the destruction of Ireland with more earthquakes destroyed drinking water trillions of tones of methane released and millions of gallons of toxic chemicals sealed under the ground. Just look up what isfracking on youtube. Please invest in solar panel for heating your water and wind turbines and batterys for powering your appliances not fossil fuels
@Matthew O’Kane: Ireland is not going to frack so don’t worry about earthquakes or groundwater in Ireland. Solar panels are great and can hear water effectively for most of the year but need to be supplemented in Autumn and Winter and early Spring. Wind power is irregular and batteries cannot store sufficient power for daily use. Battery technology is immature. Your entire post is the type of wishful thinking I associate with Greens. Not a scintilla of practicality about the need to transition.
@Matthew O’Kane: go ahead and go broke.
Sake.
and you complain about climate change and then you vote to actually use gas FFS this is so stupid ….should have been rejected
@Elizabeth Eccles:
What’s the alternative that can get Ireland away from gas quick enough that it doesn’t need it??
@Wreck Tangle: Alternative is SMR nuclear
@Gavin Tobin:
I’d agree Gavin..
@Gavin Tobin: Look how many objections a roller-coaster in Tayto Park got, no way a nuclear plant would get approved. Imagine trucks carting spent fuel through rural Ireland to Dublin port. Will never happen.
@Elizabeth Eccles: gas is the lowest carbon fossil fuel and most efficient to use for both heating and electricty. So no there is nothing stupid about using it. Burning inefficient dirty peat and coal is stupid.
Using oil burner is inferior to a domestic gas boiler, better is a heat pump but useless without Having your house suitable for it.
Gas networks also is now injecting green gas, reducing carbon.
There are numerous projects running to create hydrogen from excess renewables to use in the gas network.
Then there is carbon capture and storage. So when you say gas is so stupid it’s actually so Clever!
@Gavin Tobin: let us know when it’s ready.
It’s being talked about for ever same as many things.
When UK has a few of them installed let us know and we can change the rules and have the debate.
@Gavin Tobin: don’t ruin a good argument with common sense. Fear and stupidity rules the day.
Noooooooclear
There goes the Indiscipline, She defies Her Party, Will Bullshit Head discipline her ?
The change FFG will bring is fracked gas….
@MickN: And about time.
Well done to her, i’m glad she did that.
Yes let’s have a little reactor eh reaction on the side folks
Easy to vote against something when you know it’s going to be passed anyway
Mark Ruffalo might do well to heed what is happening in his own country.
Well done Maria Walsh! It takes guts and integrity to stand up and do the right thing rather than meekly following the crowd. You have demonstrated both. We need many more like you if we are to arrest the twin catastrophes of Climate Breakdown and Biodiversity Collapse.
Wonder which is Europe’s most educated, advanced society. Finland? Wonder are the Green Party there pro or anti nuclear.? I think you all know the answer.
loose cannon fg should sack her !
Are FG trying to send a message to the Green party? We can work together?
@Harry Power: like they did when in the locals and jumped on the electorate bandwagon and then blamed anything that moveS apart from FFGRTE HAHAHA
have your say