Sir, – Last week the car parks were too full, and before that too many cars were on the roads ("Operator rejects claims by Dr Tony Holohan that car parks are full", News, November 23rd). It seems that Nphet can use any metric to pursue lockdown. Contrast that with the Covid vaccine trials in which a small number of predefined outcomes were agreed with regulatory authorities to judge effectiveness.
To paraphrase the mantra of the Brexiteers, it is perhaps time for the Government to take back control of the country. – Yours, etc,
GERRY WILSON,
Ranelagh,
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Dublin 6.
A chara, – In your coverage of the ongoing tensions between Nphet and the Government (Pat Leahy, “Health experts favour tighter Covid restrictions, the politicians less”, Analysis, November 21st), could I possibly have read that the Government is now paying EY to “crunch the data” and to “get a clearer picture of exactly where infections are occurring”!
Am I missing something here? Is this not precisely the job of the 35 or so doctors, scientists and senior civil servants on Nphet?
So a consultancy firm is engaged to compensate for the Government’s lack of trust in the data that Nphet is disclosing to them. And the Irish taxpayer picks up the bill. Who is overseeing this dysfunctional relationship? Should the Public Accounts Committee sit up and take note? – Yours, etc,
CATHERINE
TIERNEY,
Dalkey,
Co Dublin.