People Can Socialise in a Socially Distant Manner in a Park But Can’t Attend a Funeral in a Graveyard in the Same Way
Following the controversial photos of the Taoiseach socialising in the Phoenix Park on Sunday Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín TD has questioned the logic behind many of the government’s decisions around the pace of exit from Lockdown. He stated:
“We were very critical of the government for their delay in instituting the Lockdown initially. We have been critical of the government’s management of the Nursing Homes. We have called for a Public Investigation of the litany of fatal mistakes that were made. We have been highly critical of the government’s refusal to secure our airports. And we have at all times demanded that the government adhere to safety and best scientific evidence”.
“However the government is clearly diverging from that evidence again. The best scientific information we have is to remain 1 metre apart. Yet the government has doubled this reducing the ability of much of society to exit from Lockdown. Best scientific evidence tells us that primary schools can partially reopen before the end of June yet there is no movement from the government. There is a high cost to the Lockdown, financially, economically and in terms of morbidity and mortality”.
“Photographs of the Taoiseach socialising albeit, he claims in a socially distant manner in the Phoenix Park, show a striking contradiction in the government’s approach. If the same number of people turned up in a grave yard in a socially distanced manner to bury a loved one and support a grieving friend or family they would be breaking the restrictions. If Christians, Muslims or Jews stood in the car park of their place of worship in the same socially distanced manner they too would be breaking the restrictions”.
“This types of contradictions and inconsistencies are very difficult for many people to accept. Supporting the people we love in bereavement and grief is an essential role that all of us must play at certain times. Its time that the government reconsiders that the rate of change in these aspects of our lives”.
