A number of MEPs and TDs have called for an immediate lockdown in Ireland in response to the Covid-19 crisis.
Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan, Mick Wallace, Clare Daly, Thomas Pringle, Saoirse McHugh, Michael Fitzmaurice and Catherine Connolly issued a joint statement calling for all non-essential shops and services to be closed immediately “in order to save lives”.
They said: “Reports of sales at sports shops in recent days are hard to believe at a time when people should be urged to stay at home and keep their distance in order to slow down the infection rate and flatten the curve. But hard and all as it is to believe, it is happening and needs to stop. At extraordinary times extraordinary measures are key to eventually returning to the ordinary.
“Likewise (lockdown) for all infrastructure projects. New roads and buildings can wait. The spread of this virus won’t. Thousands of workers are at break-times huddled together in canteens around the country. Social distancing is proving impossible for them.
“At this stage the Government needs to establish what is essential to our existence and what is not. For those services which are essential, staff must be fully protected with masks, gloves, sanitisers, cashless payment and the rigorous enforcement of social distancing. They then need to do whatever it takes to make the closure of those non-essential services happen immediately. We do not have any time to waste. People’s lives are depending on it. Let’s put on the fire guard now while the inferno is raging. Do it now”.
