Stephen Donnelly sounded sick as a small hospital in Ireland on Thursday: under serious pressure but not overwhelmed.
Yet.
He was the living embodiment of the ominous situation now facing hospitals as described by the head of the Health Service Executive earlier in the evening, seriously “challenged” and in a difficult place but not vanquished.
Hospital Report
The Minister for Health had to come before the Dáil to confront what Labour’s Duncan Smith termed “a sad mini-affair in the midst of this awful crisis”.
It wasn’t the best way to celebrate his 100 daze in office, a milestone which the modest Minister decided to mark by issuing a self-congratulatory video trumpeting his brilliance while the country was sliding back into a Covid-19 tailspin.
But never mind that, let’s talk about me . . .
Not the best of timing, but it’s all been good so far in Stephen’s world and that message must be communicated. Other more trivial matters, such as the chief medical officer setting off alarm bells about putting the fear of God into people by suggesting further lockdowns, could wait a while.
In the general gravity of things, a row over a timeline might not be the most pressing issue facing legislators. But when a crucial relationship between public health experts and the decision-makers they must advise is put at risk because of conflicting accounts of who said what and when, TDs are entitled to ask what happened.
Donnelly of 100 Daze is at the centre of the storm over the Taoiseach and Tánaiste’s very public annoyance over learning at the last minute that the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) was recommending an escalation to code-red Level 5 lockdown, giving them no time to react before that incendiary information was publicly leaked.
They were caught on the hop. Totally unaware that something was afoot, even though Nphet decided to hold an emergency meeting to discuss the worrying jump in coronavirus cases and its CMO texted the Minister for Health the day before to alert him about it, then told him before that meeting that the situation was changing rapidly for the worst and a step-up to at least Level 4 was now up for consideration.
Left in the dark
Not only that, but the CMO was Tony Holohan, back in the fray after a long layoff and a man known not to pull his punches when proposing restrictions. There was always a strong chance he would announce his return to action in the time-honoured fashion by racing onto the pitch and body-checking his government marker to signal his presence.
So he came back two days early. He texted Stephen Donnelly to say he would be calling a meeting the following day. The Minister didn’t ring him back. He informed the Taoiseach, though.
This information was of great interest to opposition TDs, who wondered why the most senior people in government seemed left in the dark about Nphet’s intentions while they had an inside man – Donnelly – looking out for them.
On Thursday morning, during Leaders’ Questions, the Tánaiste repeated that news of the decision on Level 5 came as a “shock” to him and the Government. “It did come out of the blue. We were not prepared for it, nor was the country.”
Late on Thursday afternoon, the Taoiseach implied that one of the many members of Nphet may have leaked the Level 5 recommendation before the Government could discuss it and before half the country went into shock. Thus bouncing them into accepting it.
"To clarify and to make very clear," said Leo Varadkar, "I was informed on Saturday as was the Taoiseach, and even the Green Party, that a meeting of Nphet was called for Sunday. There was no suggestion, not even an inkling, that Level 5 was being contemplated. Had we known, we would have sought an urgent briefing that night."
“Even” the Green Party? That must have been a big call.
No inkling at all from Donnelly, who communicated with the head of Nphet three times over the two days, demonstrating a strange lack of curiosity over what they might be thinking. Holohan, meanwhile, was dropping heavy hints about his concern. He even mentioned Level 4 before the meeting, but the Minister still wasn’t minded to expect any declaration of a big change in approach.
Return of Tony Holohan
But why would they? Just three days earlier the team declared itself happy with the relative freedoms of Level 2 with the next level applying to a few troublesome population pockets.
That was before the return of Tony Holohan.
It seems Dr Donnelly wouldn't be able diagnose a boil on his behind if he sat on it. Although the Minister for Health is a bona fide consultant. A management consultant. It is not widely known outside of western Europe and the Americas, but he used to work for McKinsey.
He seemed oblivious to Holohan, who was waving a red flag for him.
The mix-up led to a brief falling out between the CMO and the Tánaiste, who went on television and railed against being hit with a surprise Level 5 by Tony Holohan and his team.
But they quickly made up following a clear-the-air phone call.
The Tánaiste and Tony are such good buddies, they would be now known as “Leolohan” in medical circles if anyone believed it.
It was left to the Minister for Health, after over 100 glorious days of greatness in the department, to iron out the misunderstandings in the timeline of awareness.
At a special, night-time Covid-19 session in the Dáil he had 10 minutes to read a statement which Varadkar trailed earlier that day in the House. Ten minutes is more than enough time to fill in the gaps.
The management consultant spoke for nine of those minutes about the Coalition’s Covid-19 plan, beginning by intoning “the following are the measures as per Level 3” and reading them out in detail. Like nobody knew them at this stage, but the bleedin’ obvious is very valuable when you’re charging by the minute. Not so much appreciated by a suspicious opposition on the clock and looking for answers.
"Ireland is currently mid-table in Europe," he said at one point, reminding everyone there was a big football match on in Slovakia and it might be marginally more exciting to be watching that than listen to a routine rundown on epidemiology from Stephen Donnelly.
After racing through the “chronology” which he said he knew people wanted to know about – it took a minute – he saved his final minute for reprise of his biggest hits: Wash your hands, Wear a mask, Socially distance, Flatten the curve.
And so to questions, which essentially amounted to the basic charge that he knew more than he had been letting on. And if he didn’t, after his various communications with Tony Holohan, he should have.
He talked until the time was up.
And then he was through the gap and free to start curating material for the video celebrating his next 100 days in the job.
“The best is yet to come” is how he signed off in the first one.
That’s what we’re afraid of.
