Relaxation of Restrictions, Part X *Read OP For Mod Warnings*

DTownD wrote: »

I downloaded the Waze app recently. How accurate do you think it is?

It seems to work for Dublin but elsewhere in the country I'm not so sure.

Yeah I've tried that also and not sure if it works too well outside Dublin??

SnuggyBear wrote: »

100% we will be locked down again in the winter

If the deciding metric is cases and not hospitalisation and death then the restrictions are endemic with no end date.
The virus cases will be with us for decades to come.

Chong wrote: »

What time do we expect the announcement to be ?

Whenever RTE want
I’d say 6pm

SnuggyBear wrote: »

100% we will be locked down again in the winter

Honestly I'd say there's almost little to no chance of that. If our vaccination program has anything even close to the data that's coming out of Israel, we'll be done and dusted with COVID in a few months IMO.

Doctor Jimbob wrote: »

I've started using waze as well, very handy to avoid checkpoints all right.

Before anyone labels me a granny killer, the only time I've been out of the 5km lately is leaving my wife at work, which is a tedious enough journey without having to explain myself to the gardai.

Look up to the 5km, you can tell them you are visiting the tooth fairy. The last 3km, for an 8km trip. Is literally all you have to " worry" about. The chance of being done are non existent then when also using waze...

j@utis wrote: »

And when the autumn is here we'll see the rise of the cases again, so everything is gonna get locked up again. I don't see Xmas 2021 happening, because we can't make Xmas 2020 mistake again, right?

There's a tweet in one of the other threads showing the figures from Israel, cases are dropping, as are hospital and ICU numbers with no restrictions in place. There's not a hope in hell NPHET would recommend anything other than level 3/4 if we had those numbers. It would be "very concerning".

Shelga wrote: »

The indecision of Micheal Martin is just incredible. Moving the goalposts via media leaks yet again: meant to be April 5th for potential relaxations, now middle of April. :rolleyes:

As someone else said, the fact that they have been allowed get away with not producing the most basic roadmap or plan out of this thing is just unbelievable!

It's the public sector mindset. All about entitlement and resist all accountability. No coincidence NPHET is made up of a majority of civil servants.
Not one of them loses one penny as a result of lockdown. Must be great for them.
No urgency to bring us back to normal. It suits them just fine.

My parents have both had their first dose of the Pfizer vaccine.

They live 8km away and I haven't seen them since Christmas.

I'm going to see them on Friday afternoon, and I'm bringing the kids.

I'll buy some panadol in the chemist and say that I'm dropping it off at their house, in the unlikely event we get stopped at km 5-8. Or I'll say we're going food shopping in Tescos.

I have a few days off next week. I'm going to bring the kids to the sea, which is outside the 5k but i honestly don't care at this point.

Come May, I'm allowing the kids to have playdates in the house, and maybe sleepovers.

We have a few days in Wexford booked for the end of June. In the unlikely event hospitality is not open at that stage, I have also booked a few days away in Northern Ireland. I'll cancel one or the other closer to the time. Either way, we're going away for those few days.

This could be the only plan that more people can agree on. No 10km or 20km.

Irish Times: Lockdown easing: Ministers consider plan to allow in-county travel from April 12th

The lockdown restriction confining people to within 5 kilometres of their home for exercise should be extended to a county-wide limit from mid-April, according to a recommendation from the Cabinet coronavirus committee.

The Cabinet will today consider extending the 5km Covid-19 travel restriction to a county-wide limit from mid-April .

The sub-committee of senior Ministers decided last night to delay the easing of the restriction on foot of what was described as a “grim” briefing from the National Public Health Emergency Committee (Nphet) on the current situation.

Irish Times

Shelga wrote: »

The indecision of Micheal Martin is just incredible. Moving the goalposts via media leaks yet again: meant to be April 5th for potential relaxations, now middle of April. :rolleyes:

As someone else said, the fact that they have been allowed get away with not producing the most basic roadmap or plan out of this thing is just unbelievable!

It's because they will still maintain the majority of the public's support irrespective of what they do. It's absolutely baffling and wouldn't fly in any other country in the Western world.

I'd genuinely love to wonder what would make people even take to twitter or email their local representative to proclaim their utter dissatisfaction. It would probably take Micheal Martin taking a dump on their doorstep and slapping their Mother.

Pussyhands wrote: »

It's disgusting that construction is not happening. I think it's obvious from moves government make that they are purposely pushing house prices higher.

They increased the help to buy to 30k last July when the people benefitting from this did not need the help.

They introduced a max increase of 4 (!!!!!!!) percent per YEAR in some areas which lead to rent going up by 4% per year. (what idiot thinks a 4% increase per year is a reasonable increase???)

They're going ahead with shared equity scheme which has been said by the ESRI to push up house prices.

I agree disgusting is the word tbh. There is NO REASON for construction not to be happening. It hasn't been stopped anywhere else, and we live in a horrifically dysfunctional housing market as it is. Covid has made it significantly worse. I think it's an insult to everyone in this house trying to buy a place that they will not tell us when viewings can happen. Not allowing viewings of vacant properties is an absolute farce.

I've emailed Darragh O'Brien twice since Christmas about this- to ask when viewings will be happening again, and to ask what is the plan to help people in Dublin, as help to buy may as well not exist for people who live in the capital. Have received no response either time. This man earns €200k+ per year.

I see he has time to pat himself on the back on Twitter though, about the universally panned shared ownership bull**** scheme.

God, it makes me so angry. Time to get off the internet and try to enjoy the sunshine. Although no doubt they'd ban sunshine too if they could. :rolleyes:

JDD wrote: »

I'm sure they do. But there's a massive difference between being a bit put out because you can't get your haircut or go to the shops, and having to go on the PUP when you had a good income before that.

"oh my hair's a state"

vs

"I can't pay my mortgage. I've used all my savings. What if one of my children get sick? What if my business never reopens?"

Y'know, there's quite a bit of difference in the stress levels there.

I can tell you that lockdown suited us just fine financially last year. In fact we saved lots by not having to pay childcare. But my husband was made redundant in January, and while it was not lockdown-related I am *extremely* eager for the economy to reopen so that the jobs market opens up for him.

I don't doubt that for a second, nor wouldn't argue that. It absolutely has impacted some more than others.

Russman wrote: »

I don't doubt that for a second, nor wouldn't argue that. It absolutely has impacted some more than others.

I would say there is a large minority of people that it has impacted from a medium to severe level. And then there's the majority who are annoyed at the restrictions but not financially effected by them. Unfortunately NPHET, the government and the HSE all fall into the latter category. Until you have experienced the stress in the former category, there will be no urgency in getting us out of restrictions. That's the reality.