There is ‘something’ going in between Health Minister Stephen Donnelly and Deputy Prime Minister Leo Varadkar. According to government sources, there is a ‘cold war’ going in between the two.
Although the Deputy Prime Minister has corrected the contempt of senior health advisers and others, there are indications that it has not faded from the mind of the Health Minister.
Apart from this, it is not clear whether there are any other unresolved issues between the two.
A disagreement with Deputy Prime Minister’s health circuit breaker, was publicly rejected by the Health Minister.
Mr Varadkar put forward the idea of a short, hard lockdown, which would be an attempt to cut the spread over a three or four week period before returning to lighter restrictions.
Health Minister Stephen Donnelly has ruled out this plan to implement the short lock-down within hours after Varadkar proposed the idea of “circuit breaker.”
On Sunday morning, the Deputy Prime Minister, said that Ireland would need a lockdown to control Covid spread.
Varadkar made this proposal, as 1,012 more cases were reported in Ireland on Saturday. He said that with a strict and short lockdown it would be possible to reduce the spread within three to four weeks.
But Minister Stephen Donnelly, who appeared on RTE Radio One on Sunday afternoon, ruthlessly rejected the comments of Leo Varadkar. He said that the Government is not planning for any kind of ‘circuit breaker’.
“As we look at the figure this week, let’s remember they’re not a reflection on whether we should be in this so-called circuit breaker. All this idea means is that you move for a time-limited period to Level 5,” he said.