Coronavirus restrictions need all-island exit strategy, says McDonald

Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald has called for an all-island exit strategy from coronavirus restrictions, saying May 5th would not be a “red-letter day” for the easing of the lockdown.

In an interview with The Irish Times, Ms McDonald urged public health officials to “get under the bonnet” of what is happening in Cavan and Monaghan amid concerns about increasing infection levels in Border counties.

“Some people have now been led to believe that May 5th is a red-letter day when we will be all liberated from these restrictions. It’s just not true. The truth is unless and until we have antivirals and ideally a vaccine for this disease, we are going to have to be careful and we are going to have to have precautions and measures.”

Gatherings and school

She said that unless full testing and tracing is under way and “until we actually know that is working in a comprehensive way then to unwind things is very, very risky.

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“I’m not sure and I’m not convinced that May 5th is the time for unwinding anything really of significance in terms of big gatherings or certainly school returns, or any of those things.

“And if the proposal is to unwind in terms of people back to work, well then it needs to be very strictly measured and weighed. The stakes are very high.”

In relation to the Leaving Cert, she said Minister for Education Joe McHugh should give a “cast iron” guarantee about plans to proceed by the start of June or else a “Plan B” must be put in place.

She also confirmed that Sinn Féin would vote against any plans to “taper off” the €350 weekly pandemic payment which Ministers had indicated was on the cards.

Belfast and Dublin

Ms McDonald said any exit plan from restrictions should be done on an all-island basis. She was speaking after it emerged that Co Cavan has the highest incidence of Covid-19 in the Republic, and the number of cases in other Border counties is rising fast.

She confirmed that Sinn Féin would request greater collaboration between the North and South at a meeting of the North-South Ministerial Council on Thursday.

“Belfast and Dublin should be in lockstep on these issues. Any safe exit plan needs to be islandwide.”

At the meeting, Sinn Féin would be looking to secure “as much co-ordination and collaboration as is possible on everything from modelling, transmission, agreeing frameworks to look at how you ease [restrictions] and what you ease and the pace of exit.”

Ms McDonald also said testing in the North needed to be “improved drastically” in the coming weeks.