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AS MINISTER FOR the Diaspora, I am particularly conscious of the many Irish communities around the world that are being affected by the Covid-19 crisis.
While the Government is working to assist thousands of Irish citizens stranded abroad to return to Ireland, I am conscious that many more of the Global Irish abroad and facing the serious challenges posed by this global pandemic. I want to assure you that although you are abroad, you still are in our thoughts as we collectively fight against this pandemic.
Earlier this week the Government agreed to reinforce our support for our global Irish communities throughout this crisis period. In particular, we will be refocussing our resources to our most vulnerable communities, especially the elderly, the undocumented and those whose livelihoods have been destroyed by the pandemic.
These efforts will be spearheaded by our network of Embassies and Consulates working in close collaboration with local community and welfare organisations. I applaud the way these organisations have moved quickly to refocus their activities in response to this crisis and ensured the continuity of their services in very difficult circumstances. We value the efforts of so many and we want to make sure that this vital work continues and is sustained.
We will work to support community organisations to stay active and play their critical role in aiding the vulnerable members of our Diaspora. This includes actions to reduce the pressure of isolation, especially the mental health challenges which many will face, as well as aiding those who may be bereaved at this difficult time. We will also look to assist communities to meet the needs of those made vulnerable by the crisis and respond quickly and effectively to cases of particular hardship.
Community support has been key
We are deeply grateful for support among our Diaspora communities for Irish citizens who are temporarily stranded overseas at this time. It reminds us of the generosity and sense of solidarity that has always characterised the Irish wherever they have gone in the world.
The Government has recently launched its Community Call initiative, to link our local authorities and the NGO community in supporting the vulnerable at home, and I know that many in our Diaspora are also demonstrating that same spirit of community across the world.
We should all make the effort to reach out to our family at this time when so many in our global Irish community are facing unprecedented and difficult isolation. I encourage you to pick up the phone and check on family members or other members of your community.
I know that, in particular, many children in our communities around the world have been affected by the crisis and are confined to home. I would like to recommend an initiative that Ireland Reaching Out has developed, a Children’s Family Tree. This allows children to connect with their Irish heritage and understand their history. It provides an opportunity for families self-isolating at home to explore their genealogy and bring them into contact with their extended family members in Ireland.
Easter is a time when we recall the importance of renewal and new beginnings. We should remain aware that this crisis will pass and that the bonds between us, which we can strengthen through our actions and solidarity during this time, will be all the stronger in the future.
You should know that we are keeping the lights on for you here in Ireland during this dark time and are looking forward to meeting you again when this is all behind us.
Ciarán Cannon is Minister for the Diaspora & International Development and TD for Galway East.
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Mmmmh, where are all the pro swedish muppets now. Look at at Sweden, Sweden didn’t go into lock down, why should we.
There’s very few countries handled this right. And hindsight is a wonderful thing. Once it’s all over in 18 months or 2 years or so, then we can say who were the good children in class and who dropped the pooch.
@Karl Mc Cauley: I believe one “screws the pooch”. One “drops the ball”. Good comment nonetheless. Carry on…
@David Clements: kept refusing to post, had to change several words to make it PC enough to post.
@Karl Mc Cauley: Taiwan appear to have handled it pretty excellently. But of course they were kicked out of the UN in the 1970s…a motion Ireland voted in favour of, and by extension are not in WHO.
@Joe Vlogs: mass surveillance of their citizens….no thanks you can keep it
@Karl Mc Cauley: If you look at the deaths per capita between us and them there is not much in it……you are not factoring in the amount of deaths that will occurs after this this because of the economic fallout, which will be far far greater than the virus itself.
@Peter Hughes: Sweden will also suffer the economic fallout though. Their central bank predicts a contraction of their economy which falls within the range of most of the rest of Europe, between 6.5-9.7% It seems there have been only small economic benefits to the no lockdown model. Conversely the reduction of death has also been relatively small. Given this I’d take the small benefits to the protection of life.
Is the bear a catholic?
@Peter Hughes: ‘not much in it’ is about 500 deaths as it stands. You post with crystal ball certainty that deaths from the economic fallout will far exceed this, so what is your ballpark estimate of this number? And how would you come to such an estimate?
@Peter Hughes: Stop comparing Ireland and Sweden! Different environment, genetics, population density, culture, health infrastructure etc. Far better to compare near neighbors to try and counteract all these factors. Eg Ireland v Scotland and Wales. Or Sweden v Denmark, Norway, Finland. Sweden has done much much worse than its Scandinavian neighbours. At the moment there is no disputing that. The major difference was the lockdown measures. But happy to hear of alternative explanations. Maybe long term it will look like the right call. E.g. They got the majority of their deaths out of the way in a condensed period of time. And the rest of us are just prolonging the inevitable. But we can only judge on data available today. And on that data it looks like they made poor decisions and ended up with multiples of deaths v their neighbours as a result
@NotMyIreland: Unemployment will be at 14 percent after the dust settles here, Sweden’s will be 9 percent.
GDP we will see its hard to tell but there will be a big difference.
@James F Davis: We have the youngest population in the EU so we done far far worse considering…..this virus kills the elderly in the vast majority or cases.
@Karl Mc Cauley:
Sweden >90% of COVID deaths are over 65.
Ireland >90% of COVID deaths are over 65.
Want to keep COVID numbers down: protect the elderly and vulnerable.
@Peter Hughes: I’m comparing with Europe as a whole. We all know from the last crash the Irish economy is more exposed to external shocks than many of our European neighbours so that is to be expected.
@Peter Hughes: Also even the most experienced economist have said they actually have no idea where economies will settle after this as its impossible to judge consumer demand and trends after a shock like this. If we were Sweden today our lockdown would have saved 34% extra deaths than we currently have. That’s real lives saved by today(570). Not hopeful economic savings in the future. As I said that’s why in my opinion I’d take the protection of life, with its clear advantages rather than the modest “predicted” economic savings.
@Peter Hughes: To be honest I don’t think we’re at a point for really reliable comparisons. It just surprises that over 500 deaths could be described as ‘not much in it’
@James F Davis: Do you realise how many additional people will die in a recession and if its a bad one well you can add way more on top I can tell you over years it will be multiples of what the virus kills, now come back to me and think about that before you post such comments. There is a big picture here and its about time people start looking at it.
@Peter Hughes: At this point in time I have no idea how the impending recession will look. I’ve never lived through a pandemic induced recession. And given the uncertainty among economists I think it’s fair to say that nobody really knows. That why it surprises me that you comment with such certainty on the topic. And if you are so sure then you must be making some kind of an estimate of the death toll. I asked you above what this estimate is and how you arrived at it?
@Joe Vlogs: what has that got to do with anything we are talking about at the minute.
If u want to discuss chinese politics with me grand we will in a different forum.
@David Clements: you really took him down a leg there. Back in his socks.
There was no user manual for this, no previous experience of anything on its scale to learn from and no real plans anywhere to cope with an event like it. EVERY government made mistakes and most will make more mistakes, but I doubt that any government set out to increase the risk to its people. The hope is that we will all learn and be prepared in the event that something like this happens again.
@Stephen Byrne: all they had to do was look at Hong Kong. 4 deaths in total…
I posted three months back that Ireland was not prepared and should reach out to the HK consulate…
Question is will us and their Nordic neighbours eventually see the same numbers? As has always been told to us we are simply slowing the spread. If what Ireland has done has helped our older and vunerable population avoid this for a while longer than this is positive, but failed catastrophically with the nursing and residential care homes.
@Sharp Elsi Mate: That’s a good question. I think what the lockdowns have done is give a clearer picture of the at risk categories whilst keeping the death toll down. Except of course with the residential settings which were badly managed. With the knowledge we have now it should help to minimise the death toll going forward.
@Sharp Elsi Mate: Very good point, we must also add the future unnecessary deaths that will come from not testing for cervical smears and breast checks etc.
Unfortunately we may also see an increase in suicides similar to the 2008 crash.
We have hidden from the virus, they faced it. We have little immunity they have much more.
Only an antibody test for everyone in the audience will tell the real story.
Where are 80 k deaths forecast by the famous imperial collage model by June 1st in Sweden? this had us build field hostipals and take over the private sector healthcare for the surge that never came here, nor did it in Sweden they have a marginally higher death rate per million. The difference is the GDP in Sweden is expected to have a one third contraction compared to ours. Just wait for the public sector cuts and the austerity and then let’s see who was right.
@Ruairi O Gorman: I don’t know where ‘here’ is to you, but Ireland has been through a surge of infection, illness, and deaths. Maybe not enough people died to suit your preference?
@Ruairi O Gorman: For those who insist on forcing this comparison the difference is almost 32%. Whatever way this plays out, I wouldn’t call that marginal.
You mentioned recently that there was strong evidence that the virus has already passed through the population. What’s the strong evidence?
@Ruairi O Gorman: 20/20 hindsight is a great thing. When this kicked off no-one knew how it would pan out, so many countries were over-cautious in their preparation, ourselves included in *some* areas. It’s easier to say now what was too much and what wasn’t enough.
@Ruairi O Gorman: Sweden GDP is expected to contract by between 6.5-9.7% according to their central bank. Ours by 8%.
@Ruairi O Gorman: How can you say that 570 people dying is a marginal figure especially as Sweden are still recording an excessive amount of new cases and deaths per day? Today they had 2214 new cases and 74 new deaths. Give it another month and then see if you still think their death rate is marginally greater than ours.
@Steve: another month and Sweden have close to full immunity and approx 5500-6000 deaths, we have no clear path and could be importing clusters for a yr or more
@dowthebow: They won’t have full immunity in a month or two, less than 9% of the population currently have antibodies in Sweden. Their herd immunity strategy is not working. The way their death rate is going they will have 10k deaths by the end of the summer and nowhere near herd immunity.
@Crispy Brown: or perhaps the Americans who were funding the Coronavirus research in the lab in Wuhan, because they couldn’t do it on US soil. O the tangled webs they weave…
@Juniper: I think I just got pink eye from reading your shite…
@Séamus Heffernan: *doing that Wolf of Wall Street clap thing while secretly raging that I didn’t post this*. Lol
@Greg Ward: Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it. We could all do with a bit of a laugh these days!
Just an FYI we have more cases of Covid per head of population than Sweden
@european liberal: it’s the comparison of the quantity of tests carried out in Ireland and Sweden that is relevant
@Angela O’Riordan: yes, we have a testing rate per 1m population of 70000 whereas Sweden are roughly a 3rd at 27000.
@european liberal: no we dont u muppet.. Sweden has tested 27,000 per million, we tested 70,000 per million. More tests, more positive results. Also Stockholms major was interviewed on bbc news, clip available on bbc web site., saying he recons that total cases is 4 times higher than reported total. So stop talking out of your $#@.
@european liberal: Sweden has 450 deaths / million. Ireland has 336.
@european liberal: Sweden has the highest death rate per capita in the world (for countries with a population >500,000). They had 4500 deaths, if we had the same population as Sweden, we would have had over 8500 deaths.
@european liberal: also they’re death rate is much higher at 450, as ours is 336 per m.
@european liberal: We have fewer deaths per million population than Sweden. That is what the lockdown does in spreading the curve. The outcome is that while you might have the same numbers ultimately becoming sick, there will be fewer deaths as there is easier access to health resources
@David Jordan: Incorrect! Belgium 822; Spain 580, UK 580; Italy 555 followed by Sweden on 450 who are followed by France on 443; Holland 349 and Ireland 336. This makes Belgium the highest, Sweden fifth and Ireland eighth – which is where we have been for quite some time now.
@David Jordan: Sweden has a bit over twice our population, how would doubling our population increase our fatalities five fold?
@David Jordan: Jaysus David your maths are wrong here I am afraid… get the auld calculator out and go again
Lockdown hawks are reacting with ill-concealed glee to this story. They wanted Sweden to fail.
@Richard Barrett: and Sweden failed.
@Karl Mc Cauley: It depends on how you measure failure. They probably didn’t cancel outpatient clinics, they probably won’t have high unemployment or austerity. And like someone mentioned earlier, over a longer period of time, who’s to say the death rate won’t be the same or less than other countries, it just happened to them quicker.
@Thunder Snowman: Yup thats what i was getting at.
@Richard Barrett: That’s just a silly contention. Sweden should be compared with its fellow Nordic countries. Now that is a stark contrast.
@SteoG: I think what he’s saying is that if you compare them in 2 yrs time the figures might be comparable in deaths but not in austerity
@Crispy Brown:
Given their behaviour in Hong Kong lately, as well as abominable action against the Uighurs and much more besides, I wouldn’t hold my breath
You had one job, Anders…
Bit late now to have a rethink
@Gordon Comstock: Sweden has a “soft lockdown”, bars, restaurants, retail shops and primary schools are still open. They limited the size of gathering to no more then 50 (reduced from 500). They recommended people not to travel between regions, most people work from home. But it is no where as strict as here and life is pretty much normal.
This explains Sweden soft lockdown: https://youtu.be/Sjez2JwVviI
Seems to me your lockdown kings are not reading the article, what it says is in sweeden some are wondering if they could have done better, not that they wished they had shut down the economy, we all should ask could we do better, especially here. Norway for instance thinks they should have been more like sweeden:
ht tps://w ww.google.com/amp/s/www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/05/30/coronavirus-norway-wonders-should-have-like-sweden/amp/
Sweden has had 438 deaths
Ireland 341 per million, not that much worse than us,
ht tps://w ww.statista.com/statistics/1104709/coronavirus-deaths-worldwide-per-million-inhabitants/
and they wont have 30billion in debt to pass on to the next generation. Ask lockdown lovers, what has this pandemic cost you?, or are you on a Gov’t cheque or big business support.
@Henry Thompson: using your figures tell that to the 97 families per million that had to bury loved ones.
@Henry Thompson: You get my vote for stupid comment of the week. I don’t know how anyone can just trivialise 100 deaths like you did there.
@Henry Thompson: lockdown kings guided by the scientific method which overrules everything including witchcraft ,faith ,ballsology with oils etc
While Sweden scoffed at others drinking in pubs and lauding their attitude ,we cleverly abided by best scientific practice and did as well as we possibly could to date despite the tragic deaths .
Sweden has not tested the public and keep their numbers down by this affect.
Thankfully, I don’t live there anymore and I much appreciate Ireland’s approach. I know many Swedes and others living there having had the virus and been refused testing. Only told to behave morally .
Then told if they show no symptoms for a couple of days they can return to work.
It is scary and a disgrace in my opinion.
I worked in Denmark twice.
The Danes and Norwegians are great buddies, even speak the same language with different dialects, Share a common Viking History.
Stood up to Nazi Germany on WW2, but they detest the Swedes, always told me the Swedes are basically up their own Arses, they are them as uncaring and aloof.
Their approach to Covid 19 see.s to back up their analysis of Swedes , Eugenics style, as opposed to Kommune style of Norway and Denmark.
@David Grey: totally agree
The Swedish chef would have done a better job.
There is one hugely important and disastrous mistake this ‘chief’ is omitting to tell International media: The essential outbreak in Europe (late Feb-early March) coincided with Swedish schools going on Mid-term Winter sports break, which is when 10′s of thousands of Swedes go skiing in the Alps, e.g. northern Italy and Austria – Europe’s worst Corona affected areas at that time.
The one-week break is staggered in three phases across the country’s regions, from the south to the north, and even though Italy’s plight was World news by the time Central Sweden went on their break, the authorities did NOTHING to stop them (or those in the North who had yet to go on their break) from traveling to those heavily infected areas, or quarantining -or even testing- those returning!!
This is the sloppy-ass root cause of the high numbers of infected, and dead, in Sweden!!
@Juniper: Source, please.
@A2 Poster: he might be thinking about this
Criminal negligence…
Stating facts on this site comes up as toxic as adjudged by some ridiculous algorithm.
The Swedes currently have the highest daily death rate of all the western countries. They have failed are still failing. They have had over 4 months to put their house in order. The general consensus in Sweden for the very high death rate (currently 5th in the world, and rising faster than all) is that it is caused by their foreign immigrants and not by Swedes themselves, their slack response or their disregard for vulnerable people and the elderly. It’s not just the government either, the general population is complicit.
Don’t give me that about waiting a couple of years to see how everyone does. The Swedes have undertaken a policy of ‘kill them all now’ and are not ashamed of it. Infact they seem pretty proud of it.
Let’s not get carried away with the , “one life is one too many “crap . We all die .this virus kills the old and infirm. The numbers out of Sweden are , in my opinion, very reasonable. They have 4.5 k v our 1.7 k . Pro rata with the population an extra 1 k costing us €20 billion. That’s a poor return.
What they’re saying in Sweden is , not that their system is wrong, but , that more could have been done to protect the vulnerable.
have your say