How would you rate the governments performance tackling Covid so far

First Up

robbiezero wrote:

Very likely I'd imagine.

You have a very selective imagination.

timmyntc

jimmycrackcorm wrote: »

I'd be willing to bet that if there was an equivalent poll in the UK, that we'd see over 50% would also class the UK approach as disastrous.

YouGov UK polls currently show only 43% think that the government is handling it ok or better.

The old adage is true: “You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time”

43% approval for their handling of it is pretty good - most people will be unhappy one way or another.

An equivalent poll in Ireland would show Irish govt doing much worse than 43% approval for their handling. Almost everyone is unhappy with it

Red Silurian

jimmycrackcorm wrote: »

I'd be willing to bet that if there was an equivalent poll in the UK, that we'd see over 50% would also class the UK approach as disastrous.

YouGov UK polls currently show only 43% think that the government is handling it ok or better.

The old adage is true: “You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time”

I voted for "not good" because we did get cases to below 10 in June/July but since then it's been one disaster after another, I was very tempted to say 'disaster' though

timeToLive

Samsonsmasher wrote: »

Masks don't work
Social distancing does not work
Lockdowns don't work
We have destroyed the economy plunged ourselves in tens of billions of debt and created a social disaster for years to come.
For the sake of a virus with a 0.03% death rate.
The vaccine is now available for the very sick and very old who should be cocooning
Only a handful of victims of working age died from this virus.
Locking hundreds of thousands out of work - work which in many cases will not be there when restrictions are lifted - will plunge these people into poverty and homelessness.
This was evident at the very start of this when everyone said lockdowns were a medecine worse than the disease.
This entire fiasco hws been the greatest overreaction and own goal since the world went to war in 1914.

Not sure why you replied to me but I'll address your post.


Masks and social distancing do work - if they are applied correctly. Whether they are applied correctly is a different thing.


Lockdowns do work in reducing the spread. The issue is more complex than that though. Lockdowns need to be used as a tool applied correctly. They also need to be used with a stated goal and as part of a larger plan. Half lockdowns where schools are open yet others are fined for being outside 5km are destined for failure.



Mostly agree with the rest of your post.

robbiezero

First Up wrote: »

You have a very selective imagination.

Nah, just not looking to blame people when I don't know.

First Up

robbiezero wrote:

Nah, just not looking to blame people when I don't know.

How do you think the virus spreads?

Looking at the figures for UK dead I'd struggle to keep an even tone responding to anybody pointing to their highlights reel

They killed as many as was almost possible to do, I'm sure that they are doing great now they fairly sorted that problem out.

I'm personally glad we didnt go that route but I'm sure if we had the posters in question wouldn't just be criticising the alternate reality, oh no

darem93

Red Silurian wrote: »

I voted for "not good" because we did get cases to below 10 in June/July but since then it's been one disaster after another, I was very tempted to say 'disaster' though

I agree that those months leading up to the summer were pretty great going. The government did make mistakes back then absolutely, but the messaging was much clearer and people were for the most part completely on board (and I say this as someone who can't stand Leo or FG).

Where it became criminal was when all that was undone by the government not taking action and protecting the situation we had worked so hard to achieve. The virus came in through the airports in the first place, why they thought it was 100% okay to still continue with unrestricted travel into the country when we were averaging under 10 cases a day here was absolute lunacy.

This is where it really started to go downhill and it has been one disaster after another since then, as you've said.

timmyntc

timmyntc wrote: »

43% approval for their handling of it is pretty good - most people will be unhappy one way or another.

An equivalent poll in Ireland would show Irish govt doing much worse than 43% approval for their handling. Almost everyone is unhappy with it

Can you back up that claim?

The latest MRBI poll has the combined Government parties at 51%.

Melanchthon

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Looking at the figures for UK dead I'd struggle to keep an even tone responding to anybody pointing to their highlights reel

They killed as many as was almost possible to do, I'm sure that they are doing great now they fairly sorted that problem out.

I'm personally glad we didnt go that route but I'm sure if we had the posters in question wouldn't just be criticising the alternate reality, oh no

The UK deserves a lot of its criticism for failures in handling the virus but has challenges that's way above Ireland. Like half Ireland's population gets on the Tube every day.
Northern Ireland at times was completely dysfunctional.

Tenzor07

Royale with Cheese wrote: »

I would say quite bad up until 2021, then absolutely abysmal. That picture of Mícheál Martin posing with the Mirror journalist complete with shít eating grin on his face, as he's just used a tabloid rag to tell the population our Level 5 lockdown will be extended into a fifth month. Unforgivable, couldn't actually face the population.

Giving an interview to the Daily Rag Mirror was a complete farce! Someone in Merrion st. told MMartin to go out and try give more interviews than Kite flying Varadkar.... and MM duly did so to a completely star-struck Mirror employee journalist who read from a pre-approved script..
Even Claire Byrne on the state media channel is starting to think about going off-script with her questions to the likes of Donnelly!

ELM327

Previous government: Done well.

Current government: Shambles. Made a mess of everything , lockdown timing, schools, vaccine rollout, what is closed vs what is not etc.

Tenzor07

ELM327 wrote: »

Previous government: Done well.

Current government: Shambles. Made a mess of everything , lockdown timing, schools, vaccine rollout, what is closed vs what is not etc.

However most of the previous Government are still in Government, with a few changes..

ELM327

Tenzor07 wrote: »

However most of the previous Government are still in Government, with a few changes..

Yes you could say that but the current taoiseach was not a member of the prior government nor was any of his party.

agoodpunt

td's getting 3% increase lol

PintOfView

robbiezero wrote: »

I am wondering how the poster knows that the virus is just being spread by people not following restrictions.

PintOfView wrote: »

I'm wondering how you think it's spreading?
Is it being spread by people who do follow restrictions?

robbiezero wrote: »

Very likely I'd imagine.

It feels like you're just trolling!!

Do you think it is spread less by people following restrictions?

And a 'no', without an explanation, will simply confirm you're trolling!!

Red Silurian

ELM327 wrote: »

Yes you could say that but the current taoiseach was not a member of the prior government nor was any of his party.

I think you'll find that Leo Varadkar was a member of the previous govt... Although to be fair he's lost his ability to communicate effectively as well so it does feel like he's a different person now

Back in July/August the problem was returning holiday makers and meat factory workers not isolating, December was the British relatives coming over, now we have the student house parties, what will be done about them before they cause a 4th wave?

The government did the easy bits well, but most of them were just knee jerk reactions, such as locking the country down, closing schools and giving everyone a **** load of money to stay at home.

after that, they have been exceptionally poor with everything else.

They made a complete balls of the leaving cert last year, to the point where there are still ongoing court cases over the results. Their response to this, was to have absolutely zero plan for this year, so we are in danger of an even bigger **** up than last year. There is no excuse for not planning this.

Then there is the very clear and rigid living with covid plan, the one they spent an hor explaining in a press conference, only to change it all within what seemed like minutes.

Travel has been little more than lip service. People can come and go as they wish and even if they do inform the immigration service where they are staying, there is zero checks being carried out.

Test and trace started off ok, when there were a low number of cases, but in December they basically said they can't test close contacts because they don't have the capacity. Was covid a surprise or something? Why was there no surge capacity built in? When quizzed about this, Paul Reid said that there is nothing to worry about, in fact the NHS had asked if they had spare capacity they could use (Or to put another "Look over there")

My biggest criticism though, is that this pandemic has very clearly showed one thing. The government DO NOT run this country, it is run by a cabal of different quangos and civil servant departments, the HSE being the biggest. every question levelled at a minister, such as why the Mater didn't report cases in a timely manner, is met by "I have asked the HSE to provide an explanation".

An explanation that was given not to the democratically elected minister, it was given to the secretary general of the department of health, a leading civil servant on a cool €292,000 salary.

agoodpunt

agoodpunt wrote: »

td's getting 3% increase lol

Correction. Public Servants getting a 3% salary increase over 3 years. Not just TD’s.

[Deleted User]

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Correction. Public Servants getting a 3% salary increase over 3 years. Not just TD’s.

Correction

""modest" 2% pay rises skewed towards those on lower incomes over the next two years, along with a new sectoral bargaining process, which can deliver increases of up to 1% of pensionable pay."

So, i doubt TDs will see 2% over three years

Keyzer

ELM327 wrote: »

Previous government: Done well.

Current government: Shambles. Made a mess of everything , lockdown timing, schools, vaccine rollout, what is closed vs what is not etc.

Agreed...

Millypain

PintOfView wrote: »

It feels like you're just trolling!!

Do you think it is spread less by people following restrictions?

And a 'no', without an explanation, will simply confirm you're trolling!!

I expect our front line workers are following guidelines but it would appear that they are spreaders of covid . So whether you follow guideline or not you will still spread the virus. The worrying question s "Where the FCOK is the vaccine . Less than 250.000 Vaccinations in 7 weeks. A discrace by anyone's estimation

agoodpunt

Deleted User wrote: »

Correction. Public Servants getting a 3% salary increase over 3 years. Not just TD’s.

I was talking about td's 2% this year 1% next, didnt mention PS





https://www.newstalk.com/news/absolute-disgrace-that-tds-are-getting-pay-increase-during-pandemic-mick-barry-1154380

For Forks Sake

agoodpunt wrote: »

I was talking about td's 2% this year 1% next, didnt mention PS





https://www.newstalk.com/news/absolute-disgrace-that-tds-are-getting-pay-increase-during-pandemic-mick-barry-1154380

TDs don't set their own salary any more, hasn't been that way for a long time now, any increase is linked to Public Service workers increases.

Sconsey

Millypain wrote: »

I expect our front line workers are following guidelines but it would appear that they are spreaders of covid . So whether you follow guideline or not you will still spread the virus. The worrying question s "Where the FCOK is the vaccine . Less than 250.000 Vaccinations in 7 weeks. A discrace by anyone's estimation

I'd love to know what you would have done differently to improve the vaccine situation?

Would you have used your crystal ball last year and said 'nah EU we are going to go on our own with procurement of vaccines'? We're loaded we don't need your collective bargaining power.
Would you have told the medical bodies responsible in approving the release of treatments to throw away all their rules and process and just approve everything?
Would you really have figured it would have been a good idea to go on our own without the EU? Maybe Trump would have taken pity on us and thrown us a few supplies.

Please enlighten us....

agoodpunt

agoodpunt wrote: »

I was talking about td's 2% this year 1% next, didnt mention PS





https://www.newstalk.com/news/absolute-disgrace-that-tds-are-getting-pay-increase-during-pandemic-mick-barry-1154380

They ARE Public Servants. TDs aren’t the only ones getting a raise!

ginoginelli

Disasterous.

Unrestricted Travel has obviously been the biggest blunder.

But the reoccurring lack of enforcment on just about everything has been the real clincher for me.

Living with covid was always going to be a struggle when we were importing new viruses and variants into the country on a daily basis, but any little hope it had of succeeding was contingent on the rules put in place being followed and enforced.

Maybe the guards can take some blame for that as well, but the buck ultimately stops with the goverment.

0lddog

Sconsey wrote: »

I'd love to know what you would have done differently to improve the vaccine situation?....

How about even managing to copy the Danes ?


https://www.thelocal.dk/20210215/denmark-adjusts-expected-date-for-completion-of-covid-19-vaccination-programme

Sconsey

0lddog wrote: »

How about even managing to copy the Danes ?


https://www.thelocal.dk/20210215/denmark-adjusts-expected-date-for-completion-of-covid-19-vaccination-programme

How about you don't put your faith in a plan that assumes supplies of unapproved vaccines?

As the vaccines are approved our plans will be updated to reflect reality, not the guesstimation the Danes are at.

Edit: by the way, Ireland is about one week behind the Danes in actual vaccines adminstered, so there is frig-all difference in our current rollouts. But for some reason we are a disgrace?

ixoy

Millypain wrote: »

The worrying question s "Where the FCOK is the vaccine . Less than 250.000 Vaccinations in 7 weeks. A discrace by anyone's estimation

For data submitted by the 19th, we were 19th in the world on vaccination rates and 11th in the world for total vaccinations. That can't be a disgrace by anyone's estimation.