Covid-19: Government pins hopes on vaccine rollout acceleration

Good morning.

Back after a brief St Patrick’s Day break (there was neither Cabinet nor Dáil sittings last week), and Covid continues to dominate almost every aspect of Government business.

Right now Ministers and senior officials are preparing for some of the most politically and socially consequential decisions of the Coalition’s life so far – the pace, nature and extent of the reopening of social and economic life that will begin after April 5th.

Although those decisions will not be finally reached until next week, the discussions are already constant throughout Government. The issue features in our lead story today, along with the continuing fallout for the rest of the health service, as Paul Cullen reports that cancer treatments will not be fully restarted until the end of the year. Efforts to catch up on the backlog in treatments postponed during Covid will not even begin until the autumn.

No PCR test? Then you’ll also have to enter the new mandatory hotel quarantine system

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US officials raise questions about AstraZeneca vaccine trial

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Defence Forces to play role in running quarantine system

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Cancer services will not fully resume until year-end under HSE's pandemic plan

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The full story is here.

There is a high degree of pessimism in Government – a mixture, we note in an analysis piece, of fear and resignation.

But there is also a sense that although the coming weeks will be extremely difficult, things will improve once the great – and greatly anticipated – acceleration of the vaccine programme gets under way in April and May.

Despite everything you have seen so far, confidence in Government remains high that this will proceed, if not smoothly, then effectively. We’ll see.

In other Covid news, the hotel quarantining is finally about to start. Here's how it will work.

Meanwhile, the Government is also concerned at the growing panic in the EU, driven by a slow vaccination rollout (positively glacial by comparison with the UK) and rapidly rising numbers of new cases.

Yesterday Taoiseach Micheál Martin took the unusual step of urging his fellow EU leaders not to move to retain vaccines in the EU ahead of a summit later this week. The move had been mooted by Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, someone with whom Martin has close relations.

But he was adamant about the folly of banning the export of vaccines yesterday.

Climate Bill Day

It is a big day for the Green Party today, with the publication of the revised Climate Bill after Cabinet.

It is expected to be launched at a press conference by the leaders of the three Coalition parties. More than anything else, this is why the Greens are in Government: the promise of changing Irish policy on climate action, not just for this administration but for governments in the future.

The Bill will put binding targets into law. But will it be strong enough for the membership of the Green Party? They will not get everything they want, and they know that. But will they get enough to make the whole thing worthwhile?

The Bill comes at a time of considerable tension in the party between the Ryan wing and those less convinced that the compromises of being in government are worth it.

Last night, we reported that Hazel Chu, the Lord Mayor of Dublin, had succeeded in getting nominated to run in the coming Seanad byelections, despite a decision by the party not to run a candidate.

Intriguingly, Greens deputy leader Catherine Martin – who challenged Ryan unsuccessfully for the party leadership last summer, remember – was one of those who agreed to nominate Chu. It all has a feel of “shots fired” about it.

Best reads

Astonishing story from Conor Gallagher about the gardaí effectively busting someone into the Central Mental Hospital in Dundrum.

Fintan O'Toole on the shortcomings of our tracing system, and our editorial also has observations on the topic.

Important development in EU-China relations.

In the United States, ten people have died in a mass shooting in Colarado.

And finally because it's that time of year, Gerry Thornley's review of the Six Nations.

Playbook

The Dáil does not meet until tomorrow, but the Cabinet’s weekly meeting takes place at Government Buildings this morning. The Climate Bill tops the agenda but there will also be a Covid update and a lengthy list of other agenda items – including the approval of a process for appointing the next Chief Justice, once Mr Justice Frank Clarke retires later this year.

There is long list of committee meetings today, several of which are likely to attract attention.

The Good Friday Agreement committee will hear from Prof Colin Harvey of the united Ireland campaign group, Ireland’s Future.

The foreign affairs committee will hear from NGOs on “Gender Equality and the impact of Covid19”, while the health committee has a hearing on nursing homes with representatives from Hiqa.

Bank of Ireland CEO Francesca MacDonagh is at the finance committee, while restauranteurs and publicans’ organisations will appear at the media and tourism committee for a discussion on . . . the impact of Covid-19. What else?

Minister for Education Normal Foley and Minister for Higher Education Simon Harris are at the education committee.

There's a full schedule of all the meetings here.