Fintan O’Toole: Let’s end the stand-up tragedy of Ireland’s pandemic policy

There’s a script for what works, so Ireland should stop improvising

Tue, Feb 2, 2021, 01:00

Fintan O'Toole

We now know how to crush the virus while we wait for mass vaccination to take effect. Photograph: Johnny Milano/Bloomberg

If Ireland was a comedy club, we could call it Tragedy Improv. Policymaking has been essentially ad lib. Whose line is it anyway? The Government’s? Nphet’s? Zero Covid?

A year ago, there was no real choice but to improvise. The coronavirus was new and unknown.The immediate problems were specific and frantically urgent. Grab the personal protective equipment. Get the ventilators. Conjure up extra hospital capacity and more intensive care units. Do it all right now.

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Fintan O’Toole: Let’s end the stand-up tragedy of Ireland’s pandemic policy

There’s a script for what works, so Ireland should stop improvising

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