Publication
Briefing on the government's response to COVID-19 - Saturday 28 March 2020
From Department of the Taoiseach
Published on
Last updated on
From Department of the Taoiseach
Published on
Last updated on
Delivered by Elizabeth Canavan, Assistant Secretary, Department of the Taoiseach
Good afternoon everyone.
I’d like to begin by thanking you for continuing to abide by the latest public health measures.
Please continue to wash your hands regularly and thoroughly.
And continue to observe social distancing.
As the Taoiseach mentioned last night, we have moved into a more intensive phase of restrictive actions in our response to COVID-19 and must take the following actions to protect ourselves and each other.
The government has decided that everybody should stay at home until 12 April 2020, except for the following situations:
One of the things that the Taoiseach talked about last night was cocooning.
The reason that the CMO has asked for cocooning of people over 70, or with a condition that makes them vulnerable is to keep you safe by reducing the number of people that you meet.
If you are worried about anything or need any food or medicine delivered – call your family or friends and any local provider and let them know what you need. There will be local arrangements to make sure anyone who needs help gets it.
If you are an older person and are living alone, contact the ALONE national helpline on 0818 222 024. Or contact your local Garda Station.
It is important that people take physical exercise and get out for fresh air during this time. These entities should therefore remain open for local use, if they are within 2 kilometres of your home. We expect those who staff these amenities to support social distancing, but we do expect you to follow the public health guidance.
We will keep this situation under review to ensure that public health guidelines are observed by those using these amenities at all times.
In light of the further COVID-19 measure announced by an Taoiseach, particularly around cocooning requirements for certain vulnerable members of the community, Minister Murphy, wrote to all local authority chief executives last night, requesting that they immediately operationalise the Framework for Local Authority Community Support and put the helplines and support structures in place over the weekend.
Arising from this, the City and County Management Association met early this morning and the Local Authority Community Response Forum will meet in every local authority area to coordinate and ramp up work to help ensure all vulnerable members of our communities affected by these new arrangements are appropriately supported.
Chaired and coordinated by each local authority chief executive, the Forum will consist of the HSE, the council, county champions, An Post, Community Welfare Service, An Garda Siochana, other State organisations, charities and other stakeholders. It will lead the coordination of COVID-19 community supports and resilience in each area.
The forum will provide the following services:
There will be a community support helpline/call centre operating from early morning to late evening, 7 days per week, in every local authority. It will be cross-referenced by the Alone National Helpline.
To support this:
A lot of work and consideration has gone into categorising who are essential workers and we are cognisant of the fact that gaps or issues may arise but we will deal with them. As stated in previous guidance, all employees should work from home if at all possible.
The purpose of the list of essential service providers under new public health guidelines is to provide guidance to employers and employees as to what constitutes an essential service where workers cannot work from home and have no option but to travel to work.
All workers in Essential Retail Outlets are permitted to travel to work.
In addition, workers in the categories of essential services set out in the attached list are permitted to travel to work, subject to compliance with the guidance below.
If you carry out an activity that is necessary for the continued provision of an essential service by another organisation or you are part of an essential supply chain, you should continue to carry out that activity. To the maximum extent possible, that should be done remotely.
The government also recognises that many companies in Ireland are critical to global supply chains that are responding to the COVID-19 crisis, and many companies also perform critical global roles in other aspects of medicine, as well as security, cyber, cloud and data centre infrastructure. It is intended that these essential global roles are encompassed within this national guidance.
The Local Government emergency response teams will co-ordinate that response at local level.
All organisations who provide essential services should have business continuity and resilience plans in place. This should take account of the possibility that key workers or key facilities may be impacted by COVID-19.
If you are not engaged in the provision of essential services, then you are not permitted to travel to and from work until 12 April 2020.
There will be a grace period until 6pm on Monday 30 March for people who need to make necessary arrangements to wind down their activities in an orderly way. This should however be done in a way that minimises travel and personal interaction as much as possible.
In exceptional circumstances, it is accepted that some extra time will be needed for a wind down of activity, or, it may be necessary for a site to continue to operate at a reduced level of activity (for example. in complex manufacturing processes or very large construction projects.)
This guidance will be kept under ongoing review, and will be updated as required.
There were lots of images doing the rounds online today of people panic buying. The Taoiseach has reassured us that there is no need to stockpile or bulk buy. Food stores and takeaways will remain open in the emergency.
Essential workers can continue to use public transport. If your only option to buy food or medical supplies, is to use public transport, then you should continue to do so.
We have had some queries about planes landing at airports. Dublin, Cork and Shannon airports remain open. They will do so to allow the repatriation of Irish citizens from abroad and to ensure our supply chains remain operational. There are a very small number of passenger flights in operation. They are all following public heath guidelines. All people arriving into the country are asked to self-isolate for 14 days.
We are committed to providing accurate information to the public during this crisis.
Last night, Gov.ie experienced unprecedented traffic at 50,000 visitors per minute. This caused a temporary outage. We have now completed a major upgrade of technical capacity. This will ensure such outages can be avoided in the future and we thank you for your patience.