Paul Murphy warns of COVID-19 threat, urges emergency sick pay
Paul Murphy warned that Ireland faces a serious and potentially dangerous COVID-19 situation after the tenth case was reported with no known link to Northern Italy, urging urgent measures to prevent exponential spread. He called for major investment in the health service and immediate emergency supports - including mandatory sick pay, paid parental leave during school closures, and housing for those in overcrowded emergency accommodation - to enable effective self-isolation.
Immediate public health concern
Paul Murphy highlighted the newly publicised tenth COVID-19 case in Ireland as the first with no known link to Northern Italy, raising the prospect of community transmission. He warned of exponential growth seen elsewhere and pointed to South Korea’s rapid case increase and mounting pressure on hospital beds.
Health system capacity and long-term investment
He contrasted South Korea’s 12 hospital beds per 1,000 people with Ireland’s 3 beds per 1,000, arguing that decades of underinvestment by Fianna Fáil and Fianna Gael have left the health service vulnerable. Murphy urged building a properly resourced national health service with a massive expansion of staff and resources.
Support measures to enable self-isolation
Referencing HSE guidance that symptomatic people should self-isolate for 14 days, Murphy said the state must provide practical supports so people can follow that advice. He called for emergency measures including mandatory sick pay, state cover where businesses cannot pay, paid leave for parents during school closures, and removing requirements for welfare recipients to attend DOLE offices.
Risk posed by overcrowded accommodation
Murphy described the danger to people living in overcrowded emergency accommodation and hubs, citing a family with a low immune condition living among dozens of other families and children. He urged immediate use of vacant buildings to provide safer housing and reduce communal infection risks.
Consequences of inaction
He warned that without these measures people will be unable to afford staying home and may continue to work while ill, which would be disastrous for public health and could overwhelm the health system.
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I think we face a very serious and potentially very dangerous situation here. As this debate has been going on, the 10th case in Ireland has been publicised, which as far as is being reported, it's the first case with no known link to Northern Italy, so the person who unfortunately has contracted COVID-19 wasn't in Northern Italy, so potentially got it from someone in this country. And of course the trends are worrying in terms of other countries and the potential for quite exponential growth of the rates of infection of the virus and the impact that that will have on our society. I think one of the things that is clear is that any weaknesses in terms of the health service will be absolutely ruthlessly exposed. And in that respect, I think it's worth looking at the situation in South Korea at this stage, where you have really explosive growth of the virus. I think over 500 new cases discovered in a day, and where now the South Korean health system is on the verge of running out of hospital beds for those who need them. South Korea is a country with 12 beds per 1,000 people, Ireland has 3 beds per 1,000 people, and so you see if we get into that kind of situation with the weaknesses of our health service, the product of decades and decades of underinvestment in our health service by Fianna Fáil and Fianna Gael, well then we're going to have a very, very big problem indeed. Indeed. So I think it underlines the need for investment in building a national health service, a properly resourced, adequately funded national health service, a massive expansion in terms of staff and resources. In the immediate term, that underlines the need to try and avoid this level of exponential growth. And I have no doubt that the workers on the front lines in our health service and other parts of the public service will work as hard as they can to cope with and prevent the further spread of COVID-19. But a key element of successful containment is public cooperation. So if you listen to the HSE, they correctly, as I understand it, instruct those who have symptoms of the virus to self-isolate for 14 days. It's a big responsibility and a big ask on ordinary people who are suffering from a cough, shortness of breath or fever. And the state needs to step up to assist those people in doing that. And that's a benefit for those individuals, but in particular it's a benefit for society as a whole. Which means being serious about providing assistance for people for the impact it's going to have on their lives. Those who are self-isolating will not be able to go to work. Those who are self-isolating will not be able to look after their children. What provisions is the state putting in place now to assist those people, to ensure that therefore people aren't afraid of not going to work because of not being able to be paid or because of losing their jobs. And therefore they go to work even though they feel a bit sick and they feel that they might have the coronavirus. We need emergency measures to introduce mandatory sick pay and where businesses are forced to continue to pay their workers in the case of their stay at home. Either because of the workplace shutting down, instructing people to stay at home or the worker contracting the virus. If the business cannot pay, then they should open their books, prove that they cannot pay and the state should step in to cover the costs. In the case of school closures, which may have to become widespread. Parents, because that's what's posed in terms of school closures, is parents all of a sudden are in a real crisis situation. They also should be allowed to stay home from work and continue to be paid. Similarly, those who rely on welfare should no longer be required to go into DOLE offices, interact with others and so on. If we don't take these kind of measures, it will be disastrous because people simply cannot afford to forego their paycheck. They cannot afford to leave their children home alone. The other point has been mentioned, which is the point of those who are living now in overcrowded conditions. We are facing a housing crisis. We are facing generations of people living in single houses, but in particular people living in overcrowded emergency accommodation and hubs. I happen to be contacted by someone whose family suffers from, you know, low, what's called BART syndrome, where they have a very low immune system because of their white blood cell count. And currently they say they are living in emergency accommodation with around 40 other families, over 100 other children. The communal player areas for children, kitchen areas to cook their own food, visitors only in the reception area. And they have to avoid all of those amenities because of the danger of them suffering from infection. If they had, or someone in the homeless hub had, you can imagine the very rapid spread that could take place. So again, action is required. And I'd look at those vacant buildings that exist. Can they be taken and used immediately to provide necessary housing for people? Thanks. Nice. Yep. Nice. ...
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