THE GOVERNMENT DEVIATED from the initial advice from the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) over the reopening of shopping centres and the modifying of the 20km distance rule.
The letter from Chief Medical Officer Tony Holohan sent last night to government recommended that shopping centres remain closed and that members of the public stay within 20km from their home.
However, today the Taoiseach announced that shopping malls will reopen from 15 June.
He also confirmed that government advice is for members of the public to travel within their own county, or around their homes to a distance of up to 20km within a neighbouring county.
While the chief medical officer insisted that he was happy with this fast-track approach the letter indicates that the changes did not come from his advice.
Varadkar was quick to highlight the deviation today.
Most likely this was in order to avoid the situation which occurred last month when it was reported by some media that the Cabinet had overruled official advice from the NPHET on over-70s cocooning until later this summer.
Holohan later clarified that the government did follow NPHET’s advice on measures for cocooners.
The Taoiseach told reporters today that the government has always aligned itself to the public health advice.
He then pointed out that the NPHET letter is somewhat different to the measures announced today.
“That’s not to say that it’s, you know, that there isn’t an exchange of views, there is and there’s a lot of occasions where there’s a very sensible process around all of that. So one thing you’ll see in the letter when it’s published later on is the advice from NPHET was to keep the shopping malls closed for longer, but there was a reason behind that,” he said.
Varadkar said there were concerns that instead of shopping, people would congregate together in shopping centres.
It is understood that Business Minister Heather Humphreys made the case for the early reopening at today’s Cabinet meeting.
Speaking about the government’s departure from the advice, Varadkar said:
“We found a way around that through the NSAI (National Safety Authority of Ireland) guidelines.”
Shopping centres will now reopen on 15 June, which the Taoiseach said will give shopping centre owners time to modify the inside of the buildings so as to ensure there can be safe social distancing.
“It is a deviation you might say, but it’s a sensible one and one for very good reason,” said Varadkar.
He told reporters today that a delay in opening shopping centres would have given a lot of shops an advantage over their competitors, as stores in shopping malls would have had to remain closed.
Explaining the changes to the 20km advice today, the Taoiseach said the rule was rather unfair on those living in rural Ireland, in particular.
“We’ve heard what a lot of people have said to us, particularly in rural areas, that 20 kilometres, if you live in Dublin might get you anywhere in Dublin, but it wouldn’t get you potentially from Westport to Castlebar. So that’s why we’ve agreed with NPHET an approach that is a double approach.
“One allowing people to stay in their county, or within 20 kilometres of their home, whichever is the greater, but the principle, the public health principle, the common sense principle behind that remains intact – that we want people to stay local,” he said.
“We do not want people to be undertaking unnecessary travel at least for the three weeks. And we want to make sure that in those counties where there are no cases, and haven’t been cases for ages or at least days or weeks, for instance in Sligo, we don’t want those counties to be receded by people coming from Dublin or other parts of the country where the virus is still in the community,” added Varadkar.
Health Minister Simon Harris was also keen to point out that merging the phases was a NPHET recommendation, as are the additional measures in relation to children and older people.
However, departing from the usual line that public health advice must be followed to the letter, Harris said the government also has to ensure the advice is workable.
“As the Taoiseach says when it comes to alignment, I think you’ll see a significant amount of alignment, but obviously we have to take that advice and make sure it is applicable, sensible and operational.”
The move to change some of NPHET’s advice comes after weeks of calls from opposition TDs and those in the business sector for the government to balance the public health advice with economic concerns.
While Cabinet ministers are understood to be cautiously optimistic about the speeding up of the plan, there are quiet reservations that this is a “shot in the dark”, as one minister put it.
In his letter, Holohan states that there can be no certainty about the trajectory of the virus in the country once the easing of the lockdown begins.
While the majority of ministers advocated for early easing, there is a feeling among some in Cabinet that moving with speed could be dangerous.
“There is a bit of nervousness there,” said another minister, who also highlighted that the slower the country reopened the more damage would be caused to the economy and peoples’ livelihoods.
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