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

Taoiseach Tony is fairly banging out the tweets today

Ugly? People have been saying that in this thread since April or May last year...

My little fella had a sniffle and a temperature the other day, last for the guts of a day and he’s grand now. No way was I going for a test. I’m freely admitting that. I’m fully vaccinated and no doom merchant is going to convince me I’m wrong.

As soon as people who are fine stop seeking out tests because someone they know has a sore throat or a cough then the sooner this government will relent on the remaining restrictions. 2k cases a day is meat and drink to them. Despite it meaning sweet f*ck all now.

It was reported in today's Indo that some restrictions (e.g. masks) could be in place into next year because of the still-high numbers of new Covid cases. Although it won't be possible to achieve herd immunity to the Delta variant, wouldn't the vaccination of over 90% of the total population be enough to reduce the numbers of new cases? If it is, then why would masks still be necessary this December or next year?

It was always going to be the case. Your usual passport, driving licence, nct cert all have expiry dates. It's nothing new. It's a great idea.

The Dail approved the extension of the regulations and if you've been following any of the political positions on this, you'd know some would prefer he'd gone even further. These are SIs, not laws and you'll get no help appealing to any party apart from maybe FG.

This passport was always likely to be short term and will be dropped when there is no further perceived need for it. There may be a continued use of it in places with low vaccination rates.

Indeed, Labour, the SDs and SF were all very vocal about the need for more draconian measures. The SDs in particular were pushing a zero COVID agenda. With the mood starting to change a little we'll have SF and Labour criticize more and more of the measures as being too harsh while proposing nothing of worth themselves.

McNamara is about the only TD questioning any of this. O'Callaghan was more vocal last year but FF seem to have reigned him in. Donnelly is a PowerPoint parody character. He'd spout any aul guff presented to him in a nice slide and repeat it as gospel. Possibly the most dangerous man we could have in charge right now as he is taking everything NPHET say and just implementing it as if he has no other choice. Couple that with our worst most indecisive Taoiseach in living memory and it's a recipe for disaster.

It will be interesting next month when Paschal gets ready to present his budget. After another year of lockdown and severe restrictions I wonder how he's going to spin the "fiscal space" this time.

They aren't talking about the passport being short-term. Some countries have said the current one is no longer valid after 9 months due to reduced efficacy and will likely require a booster to have a "valid" cert.

MM is like a Ron Burgundy character. Another parrot like Donnelly and completely incapable of independent thought.

We'll be at 90%, maybe for the full population so that risk is very low. Martin has said that most things will have restrictions lifted and the ones that remain IMO will be masks in some locations and maybe some level of social distancing. He's also said it will be personal responsibility over regulations.

I hope you're right and I'm wrong but right now I don't see it.

We know by now that if NPHET want it to stay then it stays. It's quite conceivable that NPHET and it's abundance of caution mantra will look for it's use to be extended to other areas. MM might not even class the vaccine passport as a restriction. After all, he was giving himself a big oat on the back for allowing indoor dining with the vaccine passport, completely obvious to the fact that it is yet another restriction being implemented.