People Before Profit hopeful that “political ground is shifting on Zero-Covid,” but says clear plans to achieve this must be put in place urgently
People Before Profit have said that they have received replies to the request, sent yesterday to opposition parties, to support their motion on Zero-Covid.
Sinn Féin expressed an interest in meeting with People Before Profit to discuss it and the Labour Party has replied to say they will be reviewing the motion within the party.
People Before Profit started campaigning on Zero- Covid last autumn and recently relaunched an updated comprehensive document on this strategy. Last week the party wrote to opposition parties calling for them to come on board with this strategy and yesterday the party sent them a copy of a motion to go before the Dáil which outlines the main points of the strategy.
Richard Boyd Barrett TD said: “We see the responses from Sinn Féin and the Labour Party as positive and an indication that the political ground is beginning to shift on Zero-Covid as it becomes more and more clear that the only strategy the government has is lockdown and the vaccine. We do not believe this will be enough to defeat the virus.
“We have been campaigning for Zero-Covid since last autumn. We were initially alone on this issue and we are delighted that other parties have either embraced this strategy or are considering it.
However, we believe it is urgent that the opposition come together to offer an alternative to the government’s non-strategy.
“While it is clear that individual measures will certainly drive down the numbers, we will, very soon, be faced with a choice of whether to carry on driving down the numbers until community transmission is eliminated or kowtow to lobby groups and open up society again with the inevitable consequence of another surge in cases and deaths and yet another lockdown.
“We will very shortly come to a moment of truth, where we either revert to ad hoc measures with no clear objective or we drive on to eliminate community transmission and end the current cycle of surge and lockdown.
“If, as we have, choose the latter, we need to take decisions and start planning now.
“The big prize here is to get beyond this grim cycle of surge and lockdown and achieve what countries like Australia, New Zealand and some Asian countries have succeeded in doing – namely, driving down community transmission to the point where most people, most of the time, are living normal lives. This is a prize worth fighting for and can be achieved if the political will is there.”