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LAST UPDATE | 8 Apr 2022
PROFESSOR LUKE O’NEILL, alongside infectious disease experts Professor Mary Horgan and Paddy Mallon have been confirmed as members of the Government’s new Covid-19 advisory group.
The Department of Health has confirmed the membership of the Covid-19 Advisory Group in a statement sent out this evening.
Ventilation expert John Wenger is also a member of the group that will include familiar public health experts such as deputy Chief Medical Officer Dr Ronan Glynn, Professor Philip Nolan, and the HSE’s Dr Colm Henry.
The group will be chaired by Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan.
The new group to replace the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) will be much smaller than the previous.
It is understood that the Government believes some new “fresh” thinking is required two years into the pandemic.
There is also a view that the group has been dominated by the specialty of public health experts, with a focus now in the phase of the pandemic to include expertise in other areas such as virology, infectious diseases, microbiology, science and epidemiological disease modelling.
The new group will advise Government over the medium to long term of managing Covid-19, but will not be serving in the same capacity as NPHET has over the last two years.
Government sources have said the emergency phase of the pandemic over, so the new advisory body will be more in the background and not recommending on matters such as the introduction of restrictions.
Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly said: “I am delighted to announce the Covid-19 Advisory Group and its membership today. This very excellent group includes a wide range of expertise.
“Our hospitalisations are falling at present, which is reassuring. However, Covid-19 remains a threat and there is no way to know for sure what lies ahead. We need to be prepared. The Covid Advisory Group will make best use of national expertise, international data and evidence.”
Controversy
It emerged earlier this week that Dr Holohan was stepping down as the country’s Chief Medical Officer to take up the role as a Professor of Public Health Strategy and Leadership at TCD in July.
However, speaking in Helsinki this morning, the Taoiseach said that process should be paused.
“There has to be transparency. There has to be good process and procedure. I don’t see this just as a human resource issue or a personnel issue in its own right, which I can understand.
“In my view, you know, it should be paused. There should be a reassessment as to how the objectives that are behind this can be realised in a better and more transparent way.”
It emerged this week that the post Dr Holohan was to take up is an “open-ended secondment” paid for by the Department of Health under the same terms as Dr Holohan’s existing contract.
Recent reports show the CMO’s salary is around €187,000 per year.
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When will someone address the fact that everything from driving offences to riots have increased due to the Gardai effectively downing tools? Checkpoints are nonexistent, no physical presence on the streets, nutjobs allowed to intimidate at will.
@Keyser Söze: I wonder whos fault that is. You are right of course. It’s a free for all at the moment.
@Keyser Söze: any evidence of downing tools? Any chance it could be another reason?
@Keyser Söze: but it’s o.k. there are laws.
Fix the diabolical roads
Potholes
Bad camber
Dangerous intersections
Bad signage
No lighting
No road markings
Bad surfaces
Horrendous repairs to roads
Ditches not cut
No bypass’s around town, villages
Narrow, winding roads
But it’s far easier to pass the blame to the motorists.
An excuse to extract more cash from motorists that are already paying through the nose. In 90% of case there is no option but to use a car to make a journey.
My area, within theCity bounds
No bus service
No footpaths
Horrendously dangerous road
No street lights
No water service (well)
No sewage service (Septic tank)
Third world Broadband
Government and RSA get your own house in order first. Then get to area where you can blame and fine and tax and penalise people.
@Max Cooper: Contemporary politicians don’t really do anything except have press meetings where nothing actually comes about. It’s deftly played by them in fairness.
Why add more laws? The ones we have are not followed or enforced. The public knows they can get away with anything on the roads.
Apply the laws as they stand, people not doing the speed limit or drink driving cause the vast majority of road fatalities. These proposed speed changes are just cabbage head getting his way on carbon emissions under the guise of road safety, he was touting for this 4 years ago
In the UK a long-term analysis of fatal Road accidents concluded that the major contributory factor was poor road design. I would think that this is also true in this country. But,as.usual, the.”professionals” skip off blame free and it gets dumped on Joe soap.
milkin the people again n again!
Comments are closed now on the vast majority of Journal articles. Free speech is gradually being closed down.
@John Fahy: check to see are comments allowed ,if not ,pass and go to other news site
@John Fahy: just you wait, the hate speech law is coming.
How is an entire stretch of road either an 80km road or 60km? Nearly every other country in the road will decrease speed limit as you approach dangerous intersection or area, managing safety and efficient speed. It’s pathetic how little thought is put into this. Complete waste of taxpayers money.
It would help immensely if a lot more speed signs were put up. How many places are speed signs put up only at junctions while you are distracted watching out for traffic and no more speed signs for miles .also the amount of speed signs covered by bushes and hedge grow is unbelievable
Would be better to change the whole driving lessons and test criteria. Night driving, motorway, city driving. 12 lessons no way enough. Learners being shown how to just pass a 30 min test on approx 3 different routes. Motorway driving standards are appalling in this country and have gotten worse the last few years.
Never saw a single speed check at 5.00 am, all the vans, pick up trucks passing me at 120 km and more …
Speed limit is a limit to break with them ..
whats the point of more poxy laws when we have gardai ready to down tools and complete tools in charge like MI5 Harris and hapless hate speech loving Helen as justice minister. Add to that complete and utter out of touch judges who sent down a grandmother for not wearing a poxy mask during covid but for some reason actual criminals with multiple offences continue to walk free. The fact is people arent afraid of being caught or prosecuted cos they know theres dissent in the ranks at Garda level, resources are limited and we seem to only have numbers when big events are on or when those poor little pettles in the dail need protecting cos some meanie meanie on social media called them out for being inept….
@Tom Newell: well said
How about a fine of E1000 for pedestrians who press the button on a pedestrian crossing and then cross anyway without waiting for the green man – meanwhile dopey motorists are sat looking at empty junction in both directions. Traffic is bad enough without this sh 1.
@Paddy Short: Dunno why we have them apart from lazy decision makers, There should be massive pedestrian crossings, no lights 30kms through the crossing. (probably an element of protectionism as well, getting sued etc)
Standard of rural roads in this country is third World. After years of neglect some resurfacing is done but no road markings are applied to new surface. Camber on majority of roads Bad signage on all our roads and as previous writer stated you might see a speed limit sign every mile if you are lucky! Government and RSA need to get the finger out and make our roads safer and not look for another excuse to take money off poor motorists.
No need for new laws. New laws = more control. Impound the vehicles of habitual offenders.
WHO Cares if it interferes with their work (if they work )at least they won’t be on the road.
Penalty points and fines should be linked to income and/or engine size.
Mobile device use is a huge and dangerous issue but little or no mention of that
People are breaking the law because it isn’t enforced. The solution? More laws. Logic!
The speed limits are the same as they have always been, it’s one of the few constants in the equation. From a scientific viewpoint, speed limits literally can’t be the cause of increased road deaths. We should be looking at the variables to determine the causes.
One of those variables being a massive cut in funding for road maintenance. Alot of rural roads are in absolute shambles at the moment and the rate of repair is glacial.
The main road near me (rural but sees heavy traffic) had “repairs” done this year. A quick coat of chip seal, abandoned for 6 months then sweep the loose chip, abandon for another 3 months then finally remark. It’s been months since they finished and they still haven’t come back to remove the roadworks signs which can currently be found on the road or blowing around in the wind.
The new surface is already lifting in some places. God knows how much money spent paying private contractors for a subpar job that took 3 days of actual work. While people were left doing their daily commute/travelling to school for best part of a year on a loose surface with no markings to speak of apart from the odd sign saying “loose chippings 25kmh” with ditches so overgrown buses come around corners on the wrong side of the road. We are blessed there were no serious accidents.
Minister Ryan was told his proposed policies would result in increased road deaths before he put them in place, it’s public record. He still went ahead and implemented them.
But Eamonn says ahh sure it’ll be grand, dangerous road conditions are fine if we lower the speed limit. Dubs only drive 50kmh on rural roads anyway and cyclists can go that fast so it won’t effect us. Maybe we can get all the culchies back using horse and trap to get about, then the horses might trim the grass in the middle of the road and the manure will fertilize it for a self-sustainable transport system. Win-win for the greens
More people more problems.
Have speed cameras permanently placed in various locations on the M1 as out of state drivers seem to ignore the 120 km speed limit, some drive at 120 miles per hour and think they cannot be prosecuted because they are out of state. Have card readers in every garda car and make all offenders pay on teh spot fines or seize the vehicle or tow away until they pay the fine.
Reduced speed limit on national roads is the best way of reducing co2 and other car related emissions. 80kmh might sound slow but hey, I did a little over 100km last Sunday, average speed 48kmh and car used 4.0L diesel. Of course there was 1 who had to be going way faster than that but 99% stick to the rules even knowing they are almost never enforced (speeds)
have your say