THE TAOISEACH HAS said the government doesn’t want to backtrack on any reopening measures, and that this principle will “inform any decisions” when advice is received from NPHET next week. 

The National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) will next week issue advice to government on the planned 5 July reopening measures, which includes indoor dining. 

The Tánaiste Leo Varadkar and Health Minister Stephen Donnelly said yesterday that the government cannot make a decision on whether there can be further easing of restrictions on 5 July until this advice is received.

In an interview aired tonight with Claire Brock on Virgin Media Television, Micheál Martin said the Chief Medical Officer this week outlined his concerns about the Delta variant. 

Martin said he “can’t speculate right now” in relation to the reopening plans, but he said it is “an area of concern to the Chief Medical Officer, to everybody, to myself included”.

“We don’t want to be going back. That’s the important principles that has to inform any decisions in light of any advice we might receive from the Chief Medical Officer and from NPHET, who have to do some modelling of this Delta variant,” Martin said. 

Government sources have said that it would be close to impossible to reject advice if public health experts recommend a delay to some or all of the planned 5 July measures such as the reopening of indoor dining. 

“The writing seems to be on the wall from NPHET’s point of view”, said one senior source who added that the CMO told the Health Minister Stephen Donnelly that he is worried about the variant, and that a few weeks’ deferral could prevent a rise in hospitalisations and give more time to get people vaccinated.

In a wide-ranging interview about the past year as Taoiseach, Martin said the worst part of the past year was in January. 

“The impact of the virus was really challenging our health service, and challenging people, and impacting on people. In terms of not just case numbers, but also hospital numbers going up,” he said. 

The Taoiseach said “no one modelled what subsequently happened” after the Christmas period when cases spiked daily in the thousands throughout January. 

As has been said before about the pre-Christmas decision to reopen indoor dining among other loosened measures, Martin said: “If we knew subsequently what we knew then, we wouldn’t have made the same decisions.”

“I can recall talking to [HSE CEO] Paul Reid in the early part of January saying he could almost see the impact of Christmas Day on case numbers and hospitalisations, and New Year’s Eve on case numbers,” Martin said. 

The Taoiseach was questioned on housing, saying: “I would say to others, including members of my own [party], I would say this: this is a crisis, we need more houses built.

I can tell you this much: as Taoiseach I’m saying I’m going to deal with the housing crisis as we’ve dealt with Covid.

“Every single avenue we can explore now, to get houses built, we’ll do. It needs everybody, from all parties, on board – to allow projects that are shovel-ready to get through the councils and get them built. In addition to that we will provide additional resources to get houses built.”

Early government dramas 

The government hit a few hiccups over the course of its first few months. On the selection of the Cabinet, former Fianna Fáil TD Dara Calleary had expressed his disappointment after he was not awarded a Cabinet ministry. 

Calleary later resigned as deputy leader of the party after he was among a number of politicians who attended the controversial Oireachtas Golf Society event last August. 

Martin said there were “some who were disappointed” with his Cabinet selections last summer on what he described as a “bittersweet” day.

“It’s great to get elected as Taoiseach, but then you know immediately you’re going to disappoint a lot of people because there simply were not enough places there available to appoint people,” the Taoiseach said. 

He said that “understandably” Calleary was disappointed at the time but that there is a “limited number of places, particularly in a three-party coalition government”. 

The Taoiseach said the situation involving Barry Cowan was not one a person “could be happy with overall”. 

Barry Cowan was appointed as Minister for Agriculture, before being removed from the post in the wake of controversy after it emerged he had been caught drink-driving in 2016. 

“It was very difficult for Barry, very difficult for myself, and very difficult for the Government,” he said. 

“But in situations like this I do believe it’s important to go before the House, to go before the Dáil, and give a full account of what transpired.”

He said it was a “disappointing time all round”. 

The Taoiseach said he was annoyed by the Golfgate incident. 

“Dara Calleary, he got it straight away and very quickly. We discussed it that evening. He said, ‘look, I’ve made a very big mistake here.’ And he resigned,” Martin said. 

“All around that was a fairly challenging period early on in the government’s life, which we had to navigate and deal with.”

Relationships

Martin said he has a “very good relationship” with the Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan and said that public health advice “has to be independent of government”. 

“The moment you endeavour to over-politicise it as a country you’re in trouble. Look at Donald Trump in America, for example. He ridiculed public health, and the cases just went through the roof. Bolsonaro in Brazil. The United Kingdom in the earlier phase had a very difficult time,” the Taoiseach said.

“So there’s going to be tensions – we will not agree on everything. Government will not agree with public health advice on everything, and as I discussed earlier, different decisions can be taken – different variations on decisions can be taken.”

Martin said he gets on “fine” with both Leo Varadkar and Eamon Ryan, saying both he and the Tánaiste are “very practical” but “generationally we’re a bit different”. 

Legacy

In terms of how he would like to be remembered as Taoiseach, Martin said “it’s a bit early yet to be talking about legacy” but that he wants to “come through Covid intact and to facilitate and work to make sure we can emerge from it as a society, a better society, with better quality of life; with the economy restored and people back at work”. 

“And obviously in areas like education and housing in particular, I really want to turn around the situation on housing: to have a pathway there, where people are able to afford houses, and to get housing.”