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

That is not the fact of the matter, it just so happens that anytime the government didn't follow NPHET advice they made the situation worse, so, now we are near the end, are following that advice, they'd be pretty stupid not to.

And again, as people pointed out, what's the point in creating an advisory board of experts in the area if you don't take their advice? The government can change the personnel or get rid of them (as they will do soon) at any time.

(they also don't do anything other than advise about the pandemic response, there are many more levers to government that they are nothing to do with).

I don’t know who’s changed the narrative to ‘since Christmas’ - not me.

‘Everyone should know at this stage’ that NPHET made their recommendations in expectation of them being implemented. And why wouldn’t they - with the exception of a few deviations they’ve been adopted per se, with public acknowledgement from the government of ‘following NPHET’s guidance’.

Do you genuinely see their role in advice on a par with the central bank on fiscal policy decisions? Odd.

Government have effectively rubber-stamped NPHET advice into policy from the outset. Out of fear/cowardice/abdication of responsibility? Take your pick, but NPHET have been directing policy all along.

Yes very little deviation from a government appointed health board and a government decision... As would be expected

The government are so afraid of the media and Sinn Fein that they will do whatever NPHET tell them to do, how they won't give them a stick to bait them with. It's all political games from weak leadership.

Yep our health system is getting the blame for the reason but also weak leadership

Again you seem to be framing this around your belief that the government have just made their own decisions for the last nine months when they very clearly haven't. Really don't see why you're getting so exercised about something that has been a fact but is rapidly coming to a close and advice that coincides with a government proposal is tacit approval.

Sinn Fein would probably have gone down the road of NZ and other countries with liberal governments... Probably would have introduced border controls, short, sharp lockdowns instead of stupidly prolonged ones, we probably would have led fairly normal lives since last June if SF were in power

I get that I have no conclusive evidence of this but you also have no evidence of what you say, both of us are speculating

There is considerably less proof for your suggestion, given that no country in the EU has managed to achieve "zero-covid", especially not us given we have to uphold the CTA and GFA, allowing for free movement of people across a land and sea border.

When we were confined within 5km of our homes we still never managed to achieve zero covid - so the idea that we could achieve it with a fully functioning internal economy is absurd.

Seriously, this has been done to death, and even the zero-covid nutters ISAG et al, have conceded it is not realistic. You @Red Silurian are the only person who still believes zero-covid could work in Ireland. Delusional

It turns out the magic money tree has always been there. Who would have thunk it?

Why would any advisory group not expect their recommendation to be taken into consideration in the decision making process ?

The narrative here from some has been that the government has rubber stamped all recommendations from NPHET. Some apparently believing that for unexplained reasons that NPHET holds some kind of power that doesn`t allow the government to do anything but rubber stamp recommendation as some kind of universal truth. Even where their own posts show deviations from this supposed universal truth make a nonsense of it.

December the government ignored NPHET advice and reduced restriction from level 5 to level 3. Ironically for all those that rail against NPHET advice we ended up with, as one poster termed it, "s ****-show" for doing so.

Contrary to this narrative of NPHET holding some unknown unexplained power over the government which forces the government to automatically rubber stamp all recommendations, NPHET do not even hold any power of authority over individual ministries of government, let alone the government as a whole.

Simon Harris Minister for Future and Higher Education with UniCov has ignored NPHET recommendations on antigen testing, as has Stephen Donnelly Minister for Health in setting up a group headed by Professor Mary Horgan to progress antigen testing as recommended by a report of the Ferguson group.

The simple facts are governments make decisions based on the recommendations of a multitude of sources. Often where they view there is conflicting advise on a specific area, by seeking further advise from other sources. This idea that NPHET holds some mysterious power over the government that means all recommendations from NPHET are automatically rubber stamped as approved is a fallacy within some peoples heads that the facts simply do not back up.

The Tory government are far from left-leaning yet pumped billions into the economy with furlough payments.

I said the economic response has been left leaning here and in the UK.

It would be nice if our civil liberties weren't curtailed a second longer than they needed to be. Even by our own conservative standards the easing of restrictions since the lockdown just after Christmas has been extremely slow and not backed up by anything.