Relaxation of Restrictions, Part XII *Read OP For Mod Warnings*

Just on that - scanning through the news items on the removal of PCR for entry to Ireland I see no mention of NPHET.

Was this something they were consulted on, or is their opinion of it known?

Would be heartening if government made that decision all by their selves, though I imagine they ran it by Tony quietly first at least to gauge the risk of possible tweets in opposition to decision.

My local doesn't ask for a pass so I go in there, defo don't do festivals anyway. God knows what diseases are there 😂

Majority of people I have spoke to got the vaccine to travel and to feel safe knowing hey could come and go without getting tested which in its self was a shambles as everyone knows you can still transmit it. I didn't get it cause I happily paid for tests to get me around the places I needed but unfortunately it is looking like I may need it for more importantly visiting a parent & less important getting of this island

Have to agree, I've long thought MM really only interested in seeing out his time as Taoiseach, the internal strife within FF seems to have died down but it wouldn't take much for it to brew up again.

I see the good cop, bad cop routine working a treat, Government will be seen to get NPHET review, NPHET won't, all part of this never ending silly game.

I was waiting to see if updated covid certs would be emailed out after midnight as suggested yesterday, nothing yet albeit I've personally only ever looked and used existing one, Once.

The Independent doesn't seem to understand the convention on human rights

The EU's position is that the passes exist to facilitate/speed up travel, to uphold our fundamental right to freedom of movement. They don't exist to GIVE us freedom of movement.

It's interesting to see how different people interpret these measures.

Sure, we can use GNP as well, what matters is that in comparison to other countries in Europe, Ireland has come through with good economic growth and less impact due to COVID compared to other economies, this puts us in a stronger position for recovery than other countries. Now, we've also been witnessing the economic implosion of a large neighbour through this, making performance even more impressive.

Either way, whatever worry you have for Ireland's debt due to COVID is a much bigger worry for nearly every other country.

As I have done. I tested positive on an antigen test and never bothered with a PCR, what's the point the antigen was positive, I had the symptoms so I just did the isolation. No need for a PCR.

Perhaps, but if this is how they conceive of covid passes then they should instead be talking about how our fundamental human rights are being undermined by them. That's what's interesting to me here, them blithely relaying their conception that boosters give us human rights.

Well, the original idea, agreed at EU level, was only for travel until the French got the idea they could "piss off" the unvaccinated as a policy.

I often wonder would Martin have even made leader of FF if they weren't destroyed by the collapse in 2008/09. He never struck me as the leadership type because of his dithering. He is also the person responsible for setting up the HSE and is responsible of the state of the HSE is in now, if he had've been stronger and stood up to the Unions at the time we may have had a better more functioning Health Service than we do now.

The problem with Micheal Martin is that he is genuinely an extremely weak leader. There is no backbone there, no desire to change things and take a risk sometimes.

He would far rather hide behind NPHET and take the cautious approach as it deflects blame off him and makes life easier.

He is the definition of someone who wanted the top job for his own personal benefits without any of the responsibilities that actually come with that role.

I think that last line "He is the definition of someone who wanted the top job for his own personal benefits without any of the responsibilities that actually come with that role." would apply to most of the government, they all want the job, the perks and the pay but none of them want the responsibilities or have to make a decision without having someone or group to hide behind.

Really depressing time for most people honestly, did you Mention Labour 😳 my god they've been essentially absent without leave throughout this entire debacle, Alan Kelly is the best FFG spokesperson they ever had .

You could sum up every interview with a senior HSE official in 3 words.

Blaa, Blaa, Blaa 🙄

Paul Reid on Claire Byrne and my god it was painful to listen too