Government agrees next phase of Ireland’s Covid-19 response

 

Major national actions agreed across Government

New supports for health service, workers & business

St Patrick’s Festival to be cancelled

Following a meeting of the special Cabinet Committee on Covid-19 today, the Government has decided on the next phase of Ireland’s response to the global and national public health emergency arising from Covid-19.

Government Actions

The main actions agreed today are:

• The main objective in the current phase is to limit and slow down the spread of the virus, to keep the number of affected people to a minimum and reduce peak pressure on the health service;
• The public health advice for the containment phase of the response was reaffirmed;
• Ireland remains in the Containment Phase and all necessary measures, based on public health advice, should continue to be implemented;
• Ireland will move towards Delay and Mitigation Phases over the coming weeks and months, with our response calibrated in accordance with public health advice;
• A package of reforms was agreed for sick pay, illness benefit and supplementary benefit that is designed to ensure that employees and the self-employed can abide by medical advice to self-isolate where appropriate, while having their income protected to a far greater degree than under the current social welfare system. This is estimated to cost up to €2.4 billion;
• An initial package for business including €200 million in liquidity funding;
• The HSE is scaling up its actions to deal with a population impact over the coming months which could produce service demand beyond anything previously experienced. The estimated cost is in the region of €435 million in 2020.

• The latest information regarding the outbreak of Covid-19;
• The ongoing public health response;
• The response underway in the Health Service and the future actions required;
• The actions being taken and future actions that may be required on a national basis across all Government Departments and Agencies;
• Income support for employees and the self-employed who may be affected through illness or self-isolation;
• Financial support for businesses who may be affected by adverse trading conditions.

1. Strengthening public health capacity for contact tracing and response;

• Freeing up as much space as possible in hospitals, and in particular ensuring maximum capacity in intensive care and high-dependency units;
• Developing and scaling community-based responses, such as home testing, remote management of mild to moderately ill patients at home and the provision of dedicated Covid-19 services outside hospitals;
• Continuing to build and galvanise community awareness and preventative actions;
• Increasing capacity in the health service, through increased staffing, overtime and redeployment;
• The opening of additional acute and critical care capacity and the restriction of elective capacity;
• Increasing the capacity of the National Ambulance Service;
• Centralised procurement of additional essential equipment, such as Personal Protective Equipment, ventilation equipment, dialysis equipment, portable radiography equipment and additional fleet for community care;
• Greater use of technology and telephone support.

• Waiving the requirement for six waiting days for sick pay in respect of medically certified cases of self-isolation in accordance with public health guidelines;
• The removal of the means test requirement for Supplementary Welfare Allowance in respect of medically certified cases of self-isolation;
• To contain the transmission of Covid-19, the personal rate of Illness Benefit will be increased from €203 per week to €305 per week for a maximum period of two weeks of medically certified self-isolation, or for the duration of a person’s medically-certified absence from work due to Covid-19 diagnoses;
• Self-employed people will be entitled to receive either illness benefit or non-means tested supplementary welfare allowance.

• The provision of a €200 million liquidity support fund for impacted firms;
• The existing systematic short-time working scheme is available for employees who may be placed on reduced working arrangements;
• A group will be established involving union and employer representatives, as well as relevant Government Departments and agencies to monitor labour market developments and to lead a joint national communications effort focused on employers and employees (including vulnerable workers, migrant workers and undocumented workers);
• Government Ministers will also meet the banks and other important economic actors to ensure there is a joined-up national effort to mitigate the adverse economic impact of the virus.

• Representatives from political parties are being briefed this afternoon;
• There will be a further meeting with ICTU and IBEC today;
• The National Public Health Emergency Team will continue to meet regularly, with its next meeting to take place tomorrow, Tuesday March 10^th;
• The Senior Officials Group that is co-ordinating the national response will meet again later this week;
• The National Stakeholders Group will hold its third meeting later this week;
• The Cabinet Committee will meet again on Friday, when it will consider an updated version of the overall national action plan;
• Daily media briefings by the Chief Medical Officer and his team in the Department of Health will continue;
• The Taoiseach will take part tomorrow in a video conference with other EU leaders to discuss the developing Covid-19 situation;
• The Minister for Health and the CMO will meet with their Northern Ireland counterparts later this week.