Gov have asked a lot of society over the past year, restrictions, lockdowns etc, and in the main society has responded positively. The social contract has proven durable to date. Being in gov is difficult at this time, nonetheless they have to be held to account.

The opening up of society in June 2020 was rushed, no strategic vision was put forward for people to buy into, test, trace, isolate, suppress wasn’t adequately funded nor available, foreign travel into & out of ROI was ignored, workers with weak employment protections, including

Migrant workers were hard hit. To date the measures taken have been short term & reactive. Most alarming of all is the shocking lack of investment in our public health system & the lack of support for public health Doctors by successive governments.

As a state, we have to value the wellbeing & health of the people and to date that is not the case. Our health system was woefully unprepared for this pandemic. Only for the heroic efforts of our healthcare & ancillary staff the situation would have been significantly worse.

Time for a new social contract, where health & wellbeing of the people are given the highest priority and the deficiencies in our public health system are eradicated.