Briefing on the government's response to COVID-19 - Friday 24 April 2020

Delivered by Elizabeth Canavan, Assistant Secretary General, Department of the Taoiseach

Good Morning.

As usual, I will begin by reminding you all of the vital public health advice helping us to slow the spread of the virus:

• wash hands regularly and thoroughly
• use good cough and sneeze etiquette
• observe physical distancing measures

We are now in our eighth week since the first case of COVID-19 was reported in Ireland.

While we have made good progress in slowing the spread of this virus we are by no means past the point of danger. It is vital that we don’t undo the good work done by relaxing our approach too early. We need to continue to observe the restrictions in place. We need to stay safe and stay at home unless we are engaged in essential work, buying essential supplies or taking brief exercise within our 2 kilometre limit while maintaining social distancing.

As we approach the weekend, the guidance remains clear and we all need to continue to play our part. We cannot be content that what we have done so far is enough. The virus has not changed, we have. That is why the situation has improved in the general population. We cannot assume that if we relax that the virus will behave any differently than it has up to now. It is highly infectious and we know most challenging for older people and those with underlying conditions.

We must stay the course.

Over 48,700 employers are now registered with Revenue for the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme. Today (24 April), Revenue has generated further payments to employers under the scheme of €57.7 million. These payments will be in the bank accounts of the majority of the respective employers next Monday 27 April.

The cumulative value of payments made to employers under the scheme is almost €488 million. Yesterday, Revenue published updated statistics in relation to the scheme on their website, revenue.ie.

A new Labour Market Advisory Council has been set up to provide advice to the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection and the government in relation to labour market participation rates, minimising unemployment levels and reducing average unemployment durations.

The guidance of the Council will be particularly relevant in the context of the planning process for the post-pandemic recovery.

The Council is being convened – remotely - for the first time today.

So yesterday, the Community Call Fora received approximately 1,000 calls nationally. They made approximately 400 follow-up calls to people who have contacted them.

Nationally, since the end of March, the Community Call Fora have received approximately 21,500 calls and have made over 9,500 follow-up calls.

Again, we encourage anyone who needs help, knows someone who needs help, or wants to volunteer to give help to contact their local forum.

Remember, you can find your local helpline here or you can call ALONE on 0818 222 024.

First of all, I want to remind parents that applications for school transport for the next school year close today. Following the initial announcement that schools would be closed until the 29 March, and in light of the exceptional circumstances, it was agreed that school transport contractors would be paid at the normal or full rate for the period up to 29 March.

Subsequently, it was then decided that a payment of 50% would be afforded for the week commencing Monday 30 March until now. This 50% rate of payment will now continue to be paid to contractors while schools are closed in this academic year.

One of the other issues raised was the payment for bus services. Given that the school transport service has not been available to children for the last number of weeks, a refund for that period of closure will be issued to parents. The precise refund will be calculated at the end of the school year when the exact impact is known.

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis we have advised and assisted over 5,000 Irish citizens to return to Ireland.

Since the middle of April, we have assisted citizens returning from countries including the US, New Zealand, Peru, Thailand, Pakistan, Turkey, Cyprus, Nigeria, Zambia, Cameroon and Kenya.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade are continuing to provide consular advice and assistance to over 1,000 citizens who have indicated an interest in returning to Ireland from abroad.

Support of the EU civil protection mechanism has been vital in safely returning our citizens home and our shared membership of the EU continues to deliver benefits. There were approximately 600,000 EU citizens travelling at the start of this crisis and, working collectively, around 520,000 have now managed to return home.

Through the Emigrant Support Programme resources are being targeted to the most vulnerable members of Irish communities abroad, in particular older citizens and those facing particular hardship as a result of the crisis. We continue to support over 250 Irish welfare, community and other related organisations globally to assist our communities abroad.

Citizens abroad should contact the nearest Embassy or Consulate to update them on their situation and they should closely follow information provided on the Embassy Twitter account. They are providing as much factual and practical information as possible.

Contact details for all the missions can be found at dfa.ie.

A COVID-19 call centre remains in operation from 8am – 8pm Monday to Friday to assist Irish citizens abroad by phone at +353 1 613 1733 and at webchat at dfa.ie.

Yesterday the Taoiseach and fellow European Leaders, and the European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde, held a video conference meeting of the European Council to discuss the immediate crisis and to chart a path towards economic and social recovery.

Leaders endorsed the package recently agreed by the Eurogroup - worth up to €500 billion – asking that it be made operational by 1 June and discussed the urgent need for a Recovery Fund of a fitting scale to the challenge.

They also welcomed the Commission’s intention to undertake a sector-by-sector analysis on the economic impact of the crisis so as to better target supports necessary for recovery. In particular the Taoiseach highlighted acute difficulties in agriculture resulting from a collapse in exports and prices.

He also called for a plan to be developed to ensure EU states have public health controls at airports before business and tourist travel resumes, and he spoke of the need for the EU to scale up its capacity to produce medical equipment and create stockpiles in advance of a possible second wave of the pandemic.

We are aware that there are concerns that people are becoming complacent. We also know that if you are sticking to the rules, it is very frustrating if others are not.

A number of relevant bodies are monitoring volumes closely to try to give us some indications as to what is happening given the perceptions. Yesterday I gave you the update from Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) which related to Monday of this week.

This update is based on data collected from 350 traffic counters across all parts of the national road network.

TII have committed to working with us to provide traffic volume figures to us on a more real time basis – we will share this with you, as soon as we have it.

However, it is important to note that this is but one indicator of activity levels – car traffic on our national routes.

This is and will continue to be a fast-moving scenario where day on day we will expect to see changes. The CMO referred to data he received yesterday afternoon at his press conference.

This information is based on direction requests to Apple's Maps service.

I also have more information today. Dublin Bus notified us yesterday evening of an increase in passenger numbers day on day this week, and all days are above levels seen in previous weeks. They are engaging with the National Transport Authority to try to pinpoint more specific data on this for us.

I also asked An Garda Síochána to keep us updated on their view. They continue to monitor the situation in terms of traffic volumes, they urge the community to fully comply with the existing public health guidelines and confine their travel to essential journeys only. They are also liaising closely with Transport Infrastructure Ireland, the Road Safety Authority and other relevant agencies. An Garda Síochána will again operate a large network of checkpoints across the country this weekend and urge people to stay home and stay safe.

As I said yesterday, we will continue to monitor a range of indicators which allow us to understand the level of compliance with current restrictions. We know how infectious COVID-19 is. While movement alone does not mean people are breaking social distancing rules when they are out, it is certainly a cause for concern. The more we move around, the more risk we create – increased footfall means we are sharing spaces, using the same facilities, coming into contact with more shared surfaces – even if we are not there at the same time. As we move forward, we know that compliance and being able to assess levels of compliance will be critical to our understanding of how the disease is progressing in the community. We also know that if we don’t stick together, it is harder for people to comply. The message remains the same. Follow public health advice, stay at home, and suppress COVID-19. You are saving lives.

We also know COVID-19 doesn’t distinguish between different parts of society, whether it’s gender, age, ethnicity, race, sexuality or religion. Social cohesion has been a success story of Ireland's response to COVID-19. Indeed our many communities are responding to the COVID-19 crisis with pro-social behaviour, as they organise for mutual support to help each other and most notably our vulnerable.

We are asking everyone to continue with this cohesion in response to COVID-19, and continue to treat each other with respect and humanity at this time.

We are all feeling the effects of living in such strange and unprecedented times. The new restrictions we have all had to become used to, dramatic changes to our working and social lives, cocooning, being separated our extended families, living with the worry of perhaps you or a loved one contracting the disease itself. All of these things are, naturally enough, causing us stress and anxiety. We know this is a perfectly normal reaction to these kinds of experiences. People deal with those stresses in different ways. There is no doubt that we have all learned new and creative ways of being together while staying apart. But we do need to mind ourselves. That is something we are working on across Government and we will bring you an update in due course.

Thank you.