The Rural Independent Group is now calling on the government to fully reinstate the PUP and all business support schemes, for all impacted workers and sectors, in light of new shutdown measures, which the group claims is the direct result of government negligence.
Reacting to the government announcement this evening, the Leader of the Rural Independent Group, Deputy Mattie Mc Grath, stated:
“An all-out lack of clarity and strategic planning on the part of this government means that Irish people feel like they are on a perpetual ‘Groundhog Day’ treadmill. Such gross incompetence is having a tremendous mental and economic strain on all citizens.”
“Other governments around the world have adopted strategic plans and protocols to allow life to resume and businesses to operate in an almost normalised manner. For some reason, this government seems to botch everything they touch or to not do simple things well.”
“New restrictions being introduced now are predicated on the presumption that our hospitals will become overrun and that our ICU capacity will not cope with any Covid case surge. However, over the last twenty months, the government has completely failed to boost either hospital or ICU capacity, despite having the time and taxpayers’ money to do so.”
“We are where we are today because of the government’s failure to plan and act on key issues. For instance, the Rural Independent Group has been calling for, since the beginning of the pandemic, responsive antigen testing to be introduced, so that people could self-test, and where necessary, remove themselves from public settings.”
“Equally, we have been calling for enhanced investments in our schools, public buildings and other facilities that support community and sporting assembly by enhancing ventilation in indoor settings, together with targeted investments in providing additional ICU capacity, hospital beds and nursing staff increases.”
“Under this government’s inaction, our healthcare settings are completely overrun, and staff are at breaking point. This is evidenced by the fact that the greatest number of Covid clusters (283) occurred in healthcare settings over the past eight weeks.”
“The government has failed miserably to address any of these issues, despite having twenty months to do so. Therefore, people naturally feel that they are back at square-one this evening, despite having over 90 percent of the population vaccinated.”
“The government’s resorting to vaccine passports amounts to nothing more than deflecting away from their own inaction. It is blatant discrimination and is not based on any scientific rationale. If it is, then we call on the government to publish this information immediately.”
“Accordingly, it is absolutely imperative that the cuts to the PUP payment and other business supports are immediately reversed for all impacted workers and sectors. In fact, it is glaringly hypocritical for the government to be announcing new restrictions on the same day as they are cutting the pandemic unemployment payment. This is illustrative of an out-of-touch administration.”
“It is completely unacceptable that ordinary workers and small business owners would have to take the financial hit for the government’s obvious incompetence, especially at a time when that same government is skyrocketing people’s cost of living via massive hikes in the carbon tax, which is increasing everything from petrol and diesel to home heating, electricity and food prices.”
“The real effect of today’s new restriction measures will mean that some businesses will be forced to shut down, as staying open will not be economically viable. Many workers having come off the PUP payment for instance, based on previous government announcements, may now be forced out of work, but will not be entitled to reapply for the payment. This matter must also be swiftly addressed.”
“In overall terms, the knock-on economic impact of today’s announcement is far-reaching. For a government to put people in such a position five weeks before Christmas is awful and insensitive,” concluded Deputy Mc Grath.
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