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LAST UPDATE | 25 Jan 2021
FIRST MINISTER OF Northern Ireland Arlene Foster has spoken with Taoiseach Micheál Martin, after he claimed that the North was not testing for the UK variant of the coronavirus.
The Northern Ireland Department of Health said earlier that these claims made by the Taoiseach were “wholly incorrect”.
Following a call this afternoon, Foster said that Martin accepted that the North is testing for the UK variant. Foster also said that testing for SARS-CoV-2 variants in the UK “is massively more advanced” than in Ireland.
Foster also said that she pressed the Taoiseach on sharing travel-locator forms, which would help inform the Stormont Executive on whether people were travelling into Dublin and up to Northern Ireland.
The DUP has been asking for this information for nine months, DUP MP Jeffrey Donaldson said earlier.
Foster said that the Taoiseach “committed to movement soon on that issue”.
Geonome sequencing
The NI Department of Health released an update last night on its “ongoing work” on the identification of new variants, saying the update was in response to “some misleading commentary in recent days”.
The detailed statement outlined that genome sequencing has been in place in NI “from an early stage of this pandemic” and that the prevalence of the B.1.1.7 variant, otherwise known as the UK variant, is also monitored via PCR testing.
Speaking on RTÉ Radio One’s Brendan O’Connor programme on Saturday, the Taoiseach had spoken about the problem of mandatory quarantine in the context of the “seamless interactivity” between the UK and Ireland.
He specifically mentioned Northern Ireland as being an issue and questioned its testing for the UK variant:
The north is a difficulty, my understanding is that the north isn’t testing for the variant and I’ve discussed this with northern leaders and their view is that the variant doesn’t appear to be as big an issue in the north, which is just not, I can’t understand that. So the north is an issue in terms of sealing the entire border.
In its statement, the NI Department of Health said its virologists are “part of the COG-UK Consortium, which is carrying out 40% of all global whole genome sequencing”.
The department also said that it submissions to the international repository genome sequences “compares favourably with other countries”.
“To suggest that NI is inactive in this field would be wholly incorrect – and is unfair to the dedicated, expert local staff working intensively in this area. Work is ongoing in relation to increasing the level of publicly available data on the ‘B.1.1.7 variant’ in NI,” the statement said.
The DUP’s Upper Bann MLA Jonathan Buckley said that the Taoiseach’s comments “tarnished the good name of our public health workers who are leading on this front. He should apologise and correct the record”.
Mandatory quarantine
The question of mandatory quarantine for people travelling into the Republic of Ireland is set to be discussed by the Cabinet sub-committee on Covid-19 today.
Some ministers have raised concerns about mandatory quarantine; Tánaiste Leo Varadkar argued in the Dáil last week that many of the travellers are essential workers.
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said on RTÉ Radio this morning that the measure wasn’t “draconian”, and criticised the government for not taking action sooner.
- With reporting by Gráinne Ní Aodha
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Maybe Michael should focus his energies on the 26 counties which, due in no small part to his poor governance, has one of the highest transmission rates in the world.
@Declan Doherty: hard to disagree with that.
@Declan Doherty: why do these comments mostly come from non existing account?
@Declan Doherty: correct declan, it’s been a shambles, I work with loads of different nationalities and they say they love the freedom they are afforded in Ireland lockdown compared to stories from their friends back in their home country’s, u are basically able to move about freely with most people never coming across a checkpoint since this lockdown started last March, zero control taken of borders, airports, ferry entry and free unchecked travel from Northern Ireland after entry from England or Scotland, 3/4 or more of the Irish workforce going to work as normal, lockdown me ar*e
@Declan Doherty: but focusing on the 26 is going to make things worse with an open airport in Belfast. All Ireland approach is the only viable solution to real control over the importation of new cases
@Declan Doherty: “the north isn’t testing for the variant and I’ve discussed this with Northern leaders”. Do the Northern leaders not even know what their own DoH is testing for? Not difficult to see why the North has more than half the deaths that the South does if that’s the case.
@Jim Buckley Barrett: Deciding to close a Facebook account is now a reason to question the validity of a person’s opinion ?
@GrumpyAulFella: they have half the population of ireland so 50% less deaths is normal at this stage lol
@Jim Buckley Barrett: I find it helps keep nosy people out of my private business.
@O’loughlin John: except they don’t have half the population of the South, not even close. The population of NI is 1.8m. The population of ROI is 5m.
@Jim Buckley Barrett: dosent mean they are wrong tho !!
@Jim Buckley Barrett: thejournal.ie has a real problem with these accounts
@Declan Doherty: and in particular, screwing some vaccines past EU beaurocacy so that we can match the UK which is now vaccinating half a million per day. Why is this never covered in the Journal?
@Paul Quirke: “thejournal.ie has a real problem with these accounts”
As long as people are not abusive, what’s the problem?
@Boyd Gray: The correct spelling is bureaucracy. Jesus, open the schools!
The Banks were not Bailed out either,I think Martin has a touch of the auld Brainfreeze!
He obviously didn’t think this up all by himself so who is feeding him this and what other info has he been given that is potentially untrue
@Paul: well he was speaking to “Northern leaders” about it so sounds as though the leadership up there hasn’t a clue what their testing for.
@GrumpyAulFella: He lied, only contacted “Northern Leaders” today.. Only you will be suprised by this
@MickN: ah well ye know Mick, I’m just quoting what he said. If he’s lying then squeal on him to Mary Lou.
@Paul: Unfortunately Martin does not need anyone to give him false information, He is quiet capable of making statements which he will do a u turn later. U Turns are his party piece…
Same tool that MM. That said if he thought they weren’t testing for it is that not more reason for restricting border with NI. What would be wrong with using the army to turn back all non-essential NI travellers. Would have avoided that incident in Donegal over the weekend!
@John McCann: you know you can’t make sense on here.
How could he be so ill-informed on such a serious subject?
I’m worried about the outcome of all of this… with so much incompetence at the top.
@Pádraic Ó Braonáin: if you read what he said, he said that he was discussing it with “Northern leaders”. How could they be so ill informed?
@GrumpyAulFella: You’re Wrong…..the northern politicians said “The variant was not an issue” They did NOT SAY they were NOT testing for it.
Will you please stop trying to defend the indefensible.
@Pádraic Ó Braonáin: I’ll try and help you here. Martin said “the North are not testing for the variant and I have discussed this with Northern leaders”. All I’m saying is that it appears as though the Northern leaders themselves don’t know that they are testing for it as they discussed not testing it with Martin.
@Pádraic Ó Braonáin: Cant help himself its an addiction now..
@GrumpyAulFella: I think it’s more like Martin’s mouth moving faster than his brain….For example: “There was no bank bail-out”.
I’m not political, but there is a credibility issue when the NI Minister for health referred to C-19 as the ‘Fenian flu” last year!
Guess he didn’t dodge this bullet. Dose.
Why does this even matter? The variant is obviously spreading in the community, it’s still COVID-19.
@Tomo: The UK variant has higher transmissibility and mortality (it’s easer to catch and it kills more people).
@Donal McCarthy: It’s already in the community, it has been since October, so why does it matter if they’re testing for it or not?
@Donal McCarthy: Easier to catch but as far as I’m aware it’s not more lethal.
@Donal McCarthy: wrong … no proper scientific proof the mortality rate is higher
Shambolic, Dept of Health new boss €290k a year and they Dept evenngets the basics wrong, not up to the jov Mr Watts
The leak,the weak and the sleep MUPPETS need to cop on to themselves.
So on one hand we’re told that most travellers into the country’s are essential workers and then we Ryan saying the majority were Irish residents returning from holiday.
Which is it as I doubt really essential workers are going on holiday.
He’d want to get his facts straight. That’s Trump levels of BS chancery.
It’s amazing the way some countries can come out with these variants, what about an Irish one, shouldn’t be to hard, bound to have traces of alcohol, in it, could be said the same for the UK, and other countries.
Ha. Burn…..
The keyboard warriors that read the headline and scroll straight to the comments to vent their anger should find a more constructive way to spend their time.
No Bank Bailout
Heaps of essential workers being deposited around building sites in Dublin ( Yes they are still open ) maybe the Gardai might call into a few sites to see if the 5K rule has been broken.
Did she touch him for money.
have your say