By Vivienne Clarke
Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said it is “unfair” to suggest that the Government should be ashamed of its response to the pandemic.
The Government was doing everything it possibly could to get the virus under control again, he told Newstalk.
There had been “a perfect storm” leading to the current surge of infection, with the combination of people socialising at Christmas and the new UK variant of the virus, he said.
Mr Martin said he was not blaming the UK variant alone for the recent surge in transmission rates.
The Taoiseach defended the Government's decision to reopen hospitality in early December and to allow household visits in the weeks leading up to Christmas.
Levels of transmission had come down as a result of the Level 5 restrictions, he said. “There were no mixed messages there.”
Gardaí
The Government accepted its responsibility, Mr Martin said: “We have acted at all times in responding effectively to the waves that have emerged.
“Our focus is in getting the current wave under control, getting the numbers down, relieving the pressure on our hospitals, and protecting the vulnerable and elderly in our community. That’s my entire focus now,” he added.
Sealing off the border with Northern Ireland as a way to curb the virus had never been “a realistic prospect” he said, but he acknowledged that the open border had led to difficulties in controlling the virus. It would be “very hard” to close it, he said.
Mr Martin said it was “quite extraordinary” that the gardaí still had to intervene to break up parties, but overall he believed there was better public compliance now than there was two weeks ago.
It comes as the Tánaiste Leo Varadkar has said that at least six factors led to the current third wave of Covid-19 engulfing the country.
Mr Varadkar said the factors included household visits, domestic travel, non-compliance, a new variant of the virus and international travel.
There was a lot of non-compliance with the restrictions in place over the Christmas period he added, including shebeens, wakes and people flying in from abroad.
