Storm Barra: Abundance of caution sees schools stay closed in some counties

Good morning,

Children across Dublin will be waking up to the unexpected news that they won’t be going to school again, after Met Éireann put the county under a status orange warning last night. Although the kids might be delighted, you could almost hear the frustrated sighs of parents after the alert went out about 9.30pm yesterday.

The status orange alert was due to last from 1am until 7am so why, some parents wondered, could kids not be sent to school perhaps a little later in the day?

The answer, it appears, is a phrase we have become used to hearing during the pandemic: an abundance of caution.

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In the same way the Government takes its cue in relation to the pandemic from public health experts, it similarly relies on the advice of the expert agencies during severe weather events. In all, schools and colleges in Donegal, Sligo, Leitrim, Cork, Kerry, Waterford, Limerick, Clare, Galway, Mayo, Wexford and Dublin were asked to stay closed.

The impact of Storm Barra has been felt far and wide across the country with power cuts and flooding. It has also impacted the Covid-19 booster campaign after some vaccination locations were forced to close. Speaking on Tuesday, Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien said he did not think the storm would set the country back in any major way in terms of the pandemic response. Storms pass, after all.

It would seem there is a bigger problem looming for the Government when it comes to the booster programme, however. There are growing concerns about no-shows among the groups that have been called recently to get the third jab. On Monday, Taoiseach Micheál Martin gave his officials a clear message: we must do everything we can to increase the uptake.

Now it has emerged that in the week commencing November 22nd, there were 208,000 appointments for booster shots offered but that only 80,000 people turned up for them. Last week, 180,000 appointments were issued, but only 93,000 turned up.

As we note in our front page piece by Pat Leahy, Simon Carswell and Sarah Burns, the Government is now planning to mount a fresh push to the booster campaign. Ministers discussed the high number of no-shows at yesterday's Cabinet meeting.

“The Health Service Executive said the availability of boosters from GPs, pharmacies and vaccination centres may be a reason for the high level of no-shows at scheduled appointments,” according to our report.

Public health officials are due to update Department of the Taoiseach officials on the pandemic situation this morning. Keep an eye on irishtimes.com for any further breaking news on this.

Abortion law review

An interesting committee to keep an eye on today will be the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health at 9.30am.

Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly will appear to discuss the planned review into Ireland’s abortion legislation. A review is required as part of the original legislation that came into force in January 2019. The legislation says a review should be carried out within three years from the date of commencement of the law.

There has been criticism from Opposition politicians that not enough progress has been made in appointing an independent expert to lead the review. The review will take a three-pronged approach: it will look at the experiences of service users and service providers, and there will be a public consultation.

The campaign to Repeal the Eighth Amendment was divisive, although the referendum passed by a landslide. Today will be the first time the Minister lays out his stall publicly on how he intends to handle the planned review in the coming months and how he intends to structure the work.

Best reads

Justice for the muzzled medics! A great piece from Miriam Lord about the ongoing saga between Nphet and Government.

Climate council exposes failures in Coalition response to crisis, reports Kevin O'Sullivan.

Here's a helpful Q&A on getting the Moderna vaccine as a booster.

The €1 billion Dart+ West project, which will see the electrification of the rail line to Maynooth in Co Kildare, has been given Government approval, reports Olivia Kelly.

Playbook

Dáil

It will be a long day in the Dáil, and proceedings will kick off at 9.12am with Topical Issues. The Regional Group will bring a Private Members’ motion on offshore renewable energy.

It will be time for Leaders’ Questions at noon with Sinn Féin, the Social Democrats, the Rural Independent Group and the Independent Group.

Taoiseach’s Questions will be taken at 1.05pm. Just before 3pm the Health Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2021 is back up.

At 4pm the Health and Criminal Justice Covid-19 Bill is up. This legislation gives the Government power to extend public health measures and Covid-19 restrictions until March 31st, 2022. It also allows for the measures to be further extended by up to three months by a resolution passed by each House of the Oireachtas.

There will be a voting block at midnight before the Dáil adjourns at 12.30am.

The full agenda for the day can be found here.

Seanad

Commencement matters are up at 10.30am before the Order of Business an hour later. At 1.30pm, the Official Languages (Amendment) Bill 2021 is up for report and final stages. Under the piece of legislation, one-fifth of public service recruits must be proficient in Irish by 2030 and 20 per cent of public advertising should be in Irish by 2030.

At 5.30pm there is a motion in relation to horse and greyhound racing fund regulations.

At 7pm Private Members’ business will come from a group of Green Party senators who are bringing a motion on the Antarctic Treaty. The treaty seeks to conserve the Antarctic region and southern seas. The senators say Ireland is one of few EU countries not to have signed up to the treaty to date.

The Seanad adjourns at 9pm.

Here is the full agenda.

Committees

As mentioned, Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly will appear before the Oireachtas Committee on Health at 9.30am to discuss the planned review into Ireland’s abortion legislation.

At 1.30pm, the Joint Committee on Finance will be looking at insurance and will hear from the Central Bank and Ulster Bank.

At the same time the Joint Committee on Transport will look at Covid testing for international travel into and out of Ireland. It will hear from various senior officials in the Departments of Tourism, Justice and Health.

At 5.30pm, the Joint Committee on Justice will discuss policing reform and oversight with Dr Vicky Conway, the Policing Authority, representatives from the Data Protection Commission, MEP Clare Daly and officials from the Department of Justice.

Details of all the other committees and their work can be found here.