
Investigation Needed into High Number of Excess Deaths Reported this Year - Tóibín
Peadar Tóibín stated, “the figures from Eurostat and the Central Statistics office are quite incredible. The former shows that excess deaths in Ireland in July increased by 16% and the numbers dying in August 2022 were 17% higher than the average before Covid hit. Last August saw the 5th highest death rate since January 2020, the start of the Covid crisis. The CSO released figures very recently that show that q2 this years saw a 39.2% increase in deaths compared with the same time last year. Again an incredibly high mortality rate. I have issued Parliamentary Questions to try an ascertain what’s going on”.
“The Health Protection Surveillance Centre have responded by saying that there is excess mortality and that it is “attributed to the impact of the Covid Pandemic”. This points to the impact of the closures by the government of cancer, heart disease, stroke and other health services during Covid. When I query the CSO reported spike in deaths, I am told that this could be as a result of the cyber attack preventing deaths being registered in 2021. That these deaths were registered instead in 2022. This may be the case but surely with this level of human mortality we should know for sure. There there should be an investigation into what’s happening”.
In Britain and else where there is very clear data coming out to show that there is a significant increase in deaths happening as a result of the closure and part closure of key cancer, stroke, heart disease and mental health services. In Ireland there is tumble weed. Its incredibly frustrating. Trying to find information is extremely difficult. We know from PQs that we submitted that there is a significant increase in the number of people being referred to Rapid Access Cancer Clinics due to the reduction in cancer diagnosis and treatment during Covid but there seems to be little analysis into the outcomes for these people. We are calling on the government to carry out a full investigation into why Ireland is registering such a high level of excess deaths nearly one year after the Covid crisis subsided”.
CRÍOCH