The Minister for Health, Mr Martin, has been accused of missing a vital opportunity yesterday to reassure the public about the steps being taken to guard the State against SARS.
The accusation from Labour's health spokeswoman, Ms Liz McManus, came after Mr Martin spoke on RTÉ radio's News at One programme and said no decision would have to be made about SARS and the Special Olympics until early next month.
"The idea that we will be waiting until early May for a response does not appear to me like it's being taken seriously at all," said Ms McManus.
SARS, the pneumonia-like virus that has been blamed for over 200 deaths worldwide, has been branded a worldwide health threat by the World Health Organisation and there are fears that athletes travelling from affected areas such as China could carry the virus with them.
"The Minister should have taken the opportunity to say what measures were being put in place to protect the public. He failed to provide any reassurance on that score," said Ms McManus.
She said a Special Olympics committee in Bray had been waiting since last Tuesday for advice from the department. "They still haven't received a response. That denotes a rather leisurely approach."
In contrast, she said, during the foot-and-mouth crisis it was clear to everyone what needed to be done to prevent it spreading. "I want to know why are we not getting the same drive and clarity now. We have a threat to human health but the response seems to be minimal in comparison."
Fine Gael's health spokeswoman, Ms Olivia Mitchell, said it appeared Mr Martin wasn't aware how serious a public health threat SARS was. "He's treating the whole thing rather casually as if the public doesn't have to be kept informed. This is an emerging disease about which we know very little so people need lots of information regularly," she said.
She accused the Minister of adopting a "rather casual and cavalier" attitude to people's health.
Earlier, Mr Martin said his department was in regular contact with the World Health Organisation and was following its guidelines on SARS. "They are not recommending as we speak the quarantining of people coming in from other countries or affected areas," he said.
He appealed to the State's 270 public health doctors, on strike over pay and working conditions, to return to the negotiating table, acknowledging that without them the State was "not at full capacity" to deal with the threat of SARS.
The doctors, if they were at their desks, would be working to prevent the spread of SARS and other infectious diseases such as measles and meningitis.