AN Taoiseach Micheál Martin has warned that there will be ‘a lot of bumpy roads’ still to be navigated in the battle against Covid-19.
Martin was speaking to the MacGill Summer School, which is being held virtually this year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“In my view, it’s a very challenging agenda … but as a country we are getting through this,” Martin said.
“There’s going to be a lot of bumpy roads ahead with Covid-19, but we have a clear policy position working with NPHET.”
Martin said that Level 3 had seen Ireland with the ‘most stringent restrictions in Europe’.
He said that a lot of peoples’ actions had ‘seeded the spread’ of the coronavirus while Ireland was at Level 2.
The scenario of Ireland effectively going in and out of lockdowns in the future, Martin said that the government was trying to suppress the virus via actions and behaviour.
He said: “The strategy we are pursuing is to try and suppress the virus through human behaviour and through restrictions, and it is very difficult for people.
“People are now fatigued, particularly after the first lockdown, to have to move into a second one.
“And I think we’ve learned from the first reopening that the next one is going to be important.
“But I will say that as a country we have managed to keep our economy viable and to keep the foundations right for a recovery after Covid.”
Tags:
