leo varadkar micheal martin
"We've got them where we want them now, Leo."
The country is in a battle to stop a slide back to lockdown after Covid-19 restrictions were introduced to limit the movement of young and old.


Comment: "A slide back into..."

Help, we're sliding! We can't stop ourselves imprisoning everyone over a benign virus. Send money, muzzles, and vaccines...


Vulnerable people and those over 70 will feel the brunt of the new rules but families and those involved in sports will also be reassessing their plans today.


Comment: I.e., they're not SAYING it's 'full lockdown', but the subliminal message you're very much meant to receive is: THIS IS FULL LOCKDOWN.


"We are acting to try and stop a national lockdown," Health Minister Stephen Donnelly said last night. He also admitted there was "robust debate" at Cabinet about whether or not the measures went too far.


Comment: It's a national lockdown. They're just covering their a**es with weasel-words in the event of major public backlash.


Family gatherings are now limited to just six people and all outdoor gatherings to 15 people.

The GAA [major Irish sports association - Sott.net ed.] has called on the Government and health chiefs to "present the empirical evidence" that informed the decision to move all sporting events behind closed doors.


Comment: They won't because there is none. This is being done to protect their 'gains' thus far this year from terrorizing and hystericizing the population.


Taoiseach Micheál Martin said the measures were part of the "harsh reality" that the virus is not going away - but privately some ministers were annoyed at the "most draconian [restrictions] in Europe".

Thousands of people who have returned to their offices in recent weeks are now being told to work from home once again until at least September 13.

Public transport is also to be avoided where possible and masks should be worn by anyone travelling in a vehicle with someone who is not from their household.

Despite new rules on public transport for the majority of the population, the Government insisted schools would open and students would be free to travel on buses and trains to get to classes.


Comment: But many if not most of them voluntarily won't go to school or send their kids to school because they respond to the IMPLIED messages of govt, NOT the 'exact rules'. So, again, this is effectively 'the full lockdown'.


It came as Health Minister Stephen Donnelly announced one further death and 190 new cases yesterday, while Ireland's five-day average is 160 new cases per day, and rising.

"I agreed with my Cabinet colleagues that we implement a number of measures to reverse the spread of Covid as outlined by the Taoiseach. We're doing this to protect public health, and protect lives," Mr Donnelly said.

'We're doing it to protect our health services, to protect jobs, and to get our schools open and to keep them open."

There will be no further restrictions on attending mass or any other place of worship where up to 50 people can gather.

Up to 50 people can also still attend a wedding despite the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) recommending that this should be significantly reduced.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin yesterday said he rejected this advice and has asked Nphet to review the recommendation they made on weddings.


Comment: This is manna from heaven for political types; endless meetings about what exactly everyone is 'permitted' to do daily. The real mass psychological effect of this daily recital of ever-changing 'permissions' is that people either postpone such things as weddings altogether, or they drastically minimise them beyond the limits of what even the govt 'permits'.


Over-70s and the vulnerable are being asked to "use their judgment" and keep the number of people they meet as low as possible.

If they do meet someone, they should keep a distance of two metres and stay in their company for as short a time as possible.

They are also being told to avoid public transport where possible and only shop during hours designated for older people.


Comment: They're the most vulnerable to this barrage of bullsh*t, so this means they'll nearly all stay indoors as if they're back under the 'full' regime of terror they lived under from March to May.


Acting chief medical officer Dr Ronan Glynn said older people could go on staycations, but they should avoid staying in hotels.


Comment: "You're free to go on holidays... but don't stay in hotels." What are they supposed to do, bring tents??


Nphet's advice to the Government was that over-70s should stay at home as much as possible, but this was not highlighted when the Taoiseach announced the new measures.


Comment: I.e, the real message between the lines is: 'STAY AT HOME COMPLETELY. BETTER YET, JUST DIE SO WE HAVE COVID-19 DEATHS TO USE'.


Many of the new restrictions were aimed at stamping out house parties and disorganised gatherings. This is why no more than six people from three households will be allowed in a home and a limit of 15 people will be imposed on any outdoor gathering which is not involving sport.

Mr Martin said restaurant and pub opening hours had been extended to encourage people not to go to house parties and to give the hospitality industry a boost.

"The Government have decided a more reasonable time for restaurants. It would be 11.30pm to allow the last sitting to conclude in an orderly manner, but that would be a deadline rather than a timeline, that's currently not there in the mandatory sense," Mr Martin said. Last week the Government announced a strict new closing time of 11pm for pubs and restaurants, which was a half-hour later than the 10.30pm advice by Nphet.


Comment: See what we mean? Politicians and bureaucrats are experiencing endless orgasm in 2020 becaue of the 'hands-on' control over people's lives it has gifted them. They have never felt more relevant and important, while never been so worse-than-useless.


Speaking at a press conference yesterday, Mr Martin suggested some establishments were opening even later than 11.30pm, but the new closing time will be put into law shortly.


Comment: None of this is legal. It is all completely unconstitutional.


The Government is also drafting new enforcement powers for gardaí so they can clamp down on house parties or pubs found in breach of the new guidelines.

Mr Martin said he would examine the case for opening pubs that don't serve food before the end of the month, but could not give any commitment.

There were some concerns raised at a Cabinet meeting on the new measures.

Ministers raised the issue of older people being able to go on staycations and about communications around restrictions on working from home and avoiding public transport.

Tánaiste [deputy PM - Sott.net ed.] Leo Varadkar criticised his Fianna Fáil colleagues for rushing through the new measures without debating it at a Cabinet committee meeting with public health experts.

Several sources at the meeting said the Fine Gael leader said: "If we keep doing business like this, we won't be doing business for very long."


Comment: The former Irish PM, who was soundly trounced in the last election in February (yet is back in as number 2 in a coalition of the establishment's losing political parties), doesn't realize how true these words are.

If they keep governing like this, they won't be in the governing business for much longer. Or any other business.


Mr Varadkar was described as "furious" by one Cabinet source who said the party was "growing tired with the bad news constantly being announced under Fianna Fáil".

Frustrations have also been raised among Fine Gael ­ministers over the severity of the advice given by Nphet on the virus.

"You'd need a certain set of skills to deal with Nphet because anyone who can make logic of their recommendations needs to be a genius," a minister said.

"We are implementing the most draconian restrictions in Europe," another minister said.


Comment: This doesn't surprise us. Ireland has often been the guinea pig for the testing of draconian globalist legislation. It was the first EU country to implement a blanket anti-smoking ban in the early 2000s. And once you accept one outrageous assault on civil liberties, you're more likely to accept the next, and the next...


Professor Philip Nolan, Chair of the NPHET Irish Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group, said without the new restrictions the number of cases would rise to "unsustainable" level.

"What we've seen over the last several weeks is a slow, but very particular rise in the level of disease in the population. We've seen the virus spread, essentially, from workplaces to households, and now households and into the community. The rate of growth is significantly slower than it was at our other critical juncture back in late February and early March, but it is too fast," he told RTÉ's Morning Ireland.

"Unless we move quickly now together to prevent further transmission between households, and from households into the community, that's the core message behind these interventions - to limit our social contracts, and to limit those social contracts to small groups - unless we move now collectively and firmly to prevent further transmission of the virus, we will see case numbers rising to a level that are unsustainable."

Professor Nolan said health officials began to see increased spread of the virus in July after the public "were not as careful as they had been" with following public health guidelines.

"I think on the background of that one of the things that we know about this virus is if you got a significant pocket, reservoir or outbreak of disease in a population that perhaps has relaxed a little bit the basic preventative measures, it's like fire into a tinderbox. The population is transmitting the virus just a little bit more than they should," he added.


Comment: This idiot-intellectual wants you to believe that he can control or 'manage' the spread of a coronavirus, which is a goal that even the WHO knows cannot be achieved.


He said the Nphet, the government and the HSE "all recognise" the strain the testing and tracing system has experienced over the last week.

"It's reasonable for us to be constantly trying to improve our test and trace system. But I do want to make it clear, it's not some kind of magic wand that can prevent infection. It's a tool used to control outbreaks," he said.

Ministers are also concerned about a backlash from the GAA after they insisted all matches must now be played behind closed doors.

Dr Glynn said Nphet was concerned about the possibility of the virus spreading with people congregating after matches.

Meanwhile, teams can only hold training sessions with 15 people at a time, despite 30 people being allowed on the field to play in matches.

Last night the GAA asked to meet the acting chief medical officer, while Labour Party leader Alan Kelly called the rules on sport "stupid".

"The decision to take away all spectators at field sports is demoralising and frankly stupid. Two hundred people including players at Semple Stadium, for example, is hardly a big public health risk," he said.

The Taoiseach said we are at "another critical moment" in the fight against the virus and insisted the public must follow the new rules.


Comment: Underlings to the leader: "The rules are stupid and illogical."

Leader to the underlings: "That's why we must stay the course."


"If we want to limit the number of people who get seriously ill or die because of the virus we need to follow these guidelines," he said.

"And for those who are asking if the controls are really worth it - or if we are somehow overreacting - I ask you to remember something," he added. Mr Martin noted that 2,332 people on the island of Ireland had lost their lives to the virus and front-line workers had worked tirelessly to stop the spread of the disease.

"Many thousands more were seriously ill and saved by incredible professionals working under immense strain.

"We can't go back. If we falter now, every sacrifice we have made to date will be for nought."