FF Ministers for Agriculture

Personally I don't think he (Hogan) should resign. I think we are shooting ourselves in the foot if we set the bar that every public office holder who contravenes the guidelines should resign.
Callerey took the hit. He is one of the more honourable representatives in Dáil Éireann and I would like to think that he will be back to the forefront of Irish politics before long.
Obviously the optics of golfgate are appalling, but the primary objective is to return the economy back to good state while trying to combat this virus.
The initial lockdown was appropriate as the danger to the health services being overwhelmed was significant.
However, notwithstanding the recent surge in numbers of Covid it needs to measured against hospital admissions, and from my understanding admissions are not rising to any significant extent (correct me if I'm wrong). That suggests, social distancing, hand washing/sanitizing etc is having a real effect.
So more practical measures should be in place, rather than blunt instruments of 'no more than 6' (why not 5 or 7?). If you are high risk - avoid large public gatherings where possible, if you are caring for or visiting elderly - avoid public gatherings.
If outbreaks occur, the people associated with the premises, business, school, etc should isolate with necessary financial supports and assist with contact tracing.

Obviously with winter approaching we all need to exercise care, but I think we can see that with hospital admissions very low care is being exercised.
 
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If only we still had Scrap Saturday.

For those of you who remember it, does not “P” spring to mind?
 

I don't think it is even the attendance at the dinner at this stage. It is the arrogance of his response where an appropriate acknowledgement and apology (and it wasn't even sincere) had to be dragged out of him and then the drip feed of information with regard to his travel within Ireland. I admire Callerey for not moaning and trying to justify his attendance and I don't think it should lead to the end of his political career. Hogan and Woulfe are different. They have shown a contempt and an arrogance that has no place in public life.

Hard to know what is happening with hospital admissions. It went from 21-28 from 8am to 8pm on the 23rd and I thought that is a bad sign but then yesterday it went from 28-22 from 8am to 8pm. To be honest, I don't know what is happening but we don't seem to seeing an increase in hospital admissions at the sort of level you would expect with case numbers rising. Same seems to be seen in other Countries too. Even the US has managed. I presume it is because younger people are getting it and we are doing a better job protecting the most at risk but I suppose we have the unknowns of the long term impacts of the virus on young people and also how long before it takes hold in health and residential settings.
 
The initial lockdown was appropriate as the danger to the health services being overwhelmed was significant.
exactly but thats the problem now because the lockdown was successful and actually widely popular, the government think that they can continue with this strategy. Now they seem to want to keep the population in a state of perpetual fear and moral outrage at any digressions from their chosen path. They have invested too much political capital in this strategy that is why they are putting pressure on the european commission to censor Hogan even though it damages Ireland internationally
 
so seemingly he was golfing in Limerick as well. Raises 2 questions
  1. Does he actually do any work or is he "golfing for Europe"
  2. Did he pay for all of this travel, overnight stays etc himself?
 
Raises another question.

Says he received the negative test while in hospital for what I assume was an elective procedure.... Means he travelled and entered a hospital setting without quarantine and without a negative test....

I have holidays booked for October which I was going to cancel. I think Phil has convinced me otherwise. I will go on holidays, get a covid test on first day back and then no quarantine for me baby!! He had days to get his story straight and still couldn't get that right....Even more holes in it. And these people are running trade talks???
 
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Now he has really put his foot in it.

In the course of an interview with the excellent Tony Connolly on RTE this evening, he said that he did not accept the 14-day self-quarantine requirement for those entering Ireland from high risk countries.

He has put Ursula von der Leyen in the invidious position of clarifying how an EU commissioner could refuse to accept or comply with an EU member’s health advice.
 
Wasn't the green list agreed as a concept at EU level?
This is more than just a little local bye-law.
He was stopped driving while using a mobile and given a warning.
I wouldn't expect much from him batting for Europe & Ireland in trade talks. His priorities seem to be golf and living the high life right now.
 
Who won the outing anyway . Do they have to forfeit the prize ?
 
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Wasn't the green list agreed as a concept at EU level?
What do you mean? sure Ireland has a different green list to most of Europe, by and large the rest of europe is only imposing quarantines on countries outside of Europe with exceptions for UK and Spain when they had the big upsurges. The irish quarantine is just a big joke especially as we have no "red list"
 

I could be wrong but I though the basis of green list was agreed at EU level.
Every country has a different list as it depends on relative recent case count.

This article is two weeks old but lists the Schengen restrictions.
We have been added to Norways red list.
 
We have been added to Norways red list.
I think its Iceland not Ireland from reading it, I take your point that some countries are becoming more restrictive now but by and large still open to pan european travel , Greece, Italy and Norway are just more restrictive but nobody is as restrictive as us and now we are not even benefitting from it because our infections are rising anyways.
 
. I think the negative test puts him in the clear even if technically he was in breach. He wasn’t harming anyone.

The negative test and "your free to go about your business" doesn't apply if you have been abroad. You still have to isolate for the 14 days.
He could have said that this is where he made the honest mistake, taking advice from his doctor rather than the HSE guidelines. Instead he responded "I don't accept that", referring to HSE guidelines.
 

Yeah if he had just admitted he made a mistake reading the regulations, I think he could have survived if he managed to sound even 1% genuine. Instead we get the 'I dont accept that'....reminded me of p flynn on the late late complaining about the cost of running multiple houses....