The Cabinet reached no decision on easing Ireland’s lockdown at its meeting this morning.
Sources say there was a lengthy discussion with differing views expressed – some ministers are said to be in favour of some measure of easing, arguing it may be need to needed to be give people hope that their efforts are working.
Others, including the Minister for Health Simon Harris urged caution while Taoiseach Leo Varadkar was said by sources to have “kept his cards close to his chest”.
The current lockdown is in place until May 5th.
The Cabinet will meet again on Friday when it is likely to be asked to approve decisions to maintain most of the lockdown measures for a further fortnight at least. However, no decisions were sought Tuesday morning.
Ministers will also be briefed on Friday about the recommendations from public health experts, who are due to meet today, and again on Friday.
Before the meeting, senior Government figures had warned that any easing of restrictions next week will be minimal, despite expected improvements in the rate of infections, deaths and hospital admissions this week.
Ministers and public health officials are likely to set out a roadmap for the eventual easing of the restrictions, with separate phases – each involving a greater opening-up of economic and social life – taking place throughout the summer, assuming targets for the suppression of the virus are met.
Senior sources said that testing capacity would be increased over the coming weeks, which would allow greater relaxation of the lockdown – but only if deaths, ICU admissions and new infections continued to fall.
“We have sufficient testing capacity to ease the restrictions, but not to lift them completely,” said one source. “But we wouldn’t be lifting them completely anyway.”
Regime
Another person briefed on the Government’s plans warned that the regime next week would not be all that different to the regulations in place this week.
However, there is growing concern in Government about diminishing public tolerance for the lockdown.
On Monday, a senior official in the Department of the Taoiseach admitted that the public’s “patience and resolve” to comply with Covid-19 restrictions is “waning”. She appealed to people to “keep going as best we can”.
Liz Canavan was speaking at the daily Covid-19 briefing at Government Buildings, where she expressed concern at reports on social media “that some people are getting very fed up of the social distancing measures”.
“They’re feeling confined, they’re stuck in the house or local area, and they’re having to queue to get into shops. We do know how frustrating it is, and we know people’s patience and resolve is waning,” she said.
But she appealed to people to continue to observe the lockdown. “This is what is required of each and everyone of us at each step to delay the transmission of Covid-19. We know that call has not fallen on deaf ears so far... For now we just need to keep going as best we can,” Ms Canavan said.
Later, asked if the Government wished to dampen expectations of the restrictions being relaxed next week, Ms Canavan said they were guided by the public health advice in the first instance, and the Chief Medical Officer Tony Holohan had previously issued the same message. It is not yet clear what actions would be taken next week, she indicated.
Danger
However, she said that the Government was very conscious of “anticipatory behaviour”, where “people get ahead of where we need to be”. There is a danger that people will expect relaxation of the restrictions next week, and will begin to reduce their observation of social distancing over the coming weekend, she warned.
Ms Canavan also supplied updated figures on the people in receipt of State supports due to Covid-19.
Almost 50,000 employers are now availing of the wage support scheme for almost 350,000 workers.
In addition, 591,000 people are in receipt of the €350-a-week special Covid-19 welfare payment, which will be in their bank accounts on Wednesday, she said.
