A delegation of Laois County Councillors will meet with Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly on Wednesday at 12pm to discuss the restrictions that have been placed upon Laois since August 7.
Cathoirleach Catherine Fitzgerald and fellow Cllrs Paschal McEvoy, Thomasina Connell, Ben Brennan and Conor Bergin will meet the Minister via video conference.
The decision to put forward the five Cllrs was made following an emergency meeting at Laois County Council last week.
Speaking about the meeting, Cathaoirleach Catherine Fitzgerald said that the delegation will be seeking an end to the restrictions in Laois if numbers of new cases remain low.
She said: “We received word this afternoon that Minister Donnelly will meet with our delegation via teleconference on Wednesday afternoon to discuss the situation.
“As outlined previously, we have a lot of questions for him that we want answers on.
“We will also be seeking to have the restrictions imposed on the county lifted permitted that the number of new cases remain low – as they have been since they were introduced.
“We want to see the lockdown last for two weeks like was originally announced – not until midnight on Sunday August 23 that was subsequently confirmed. Restrictions began at midnight on Friday August 7 so two weeks would be midnight Friday August 21.
“While we will be also looking for more support for the people and businesses in our county.
“All of the people have been hit very hard by what has happened and while the measures announced last week are welcome, I feel that more can be done.”
Laois County Council have previously submitted the following eight questions to the Health Protection Surveillance Centre:
1 – A detailed sequence of events commencing from the 1st June 2020 outlining all relevant details including the dates of all positive cases in each of the four factories concerned broken down over the three counties and the dates on which the relevant organizations became aware of same.
2 – The community transmission rate in Laois as of today’s date.
3 – The number of people from Laois that are currently accommodated in the HSE self isolation facility at City West or any other similar location.
4 – The latest information available from www.gov.ie indicates that the rate of community transmission is 30.9%. It is possible to provide the rate for Laois together with the non-community rate for the County.
5 – The number of clusters which have been identified in Laois and what additional protective measures were taken to combat the virus in same. Please also advise as to the success of such measures and the timeframe pertaining to same.
6 – The number of inspections, both announced and unannounced that were carried out in the meat plants in question and the number of tests carried out.
7 – In relation to the restrictions that have been imposed, was consideration given to deferring the implementation of same to minimize the effects on certain sectors of the community.
8 – Having regard to the numbers reported on Monday for Laois, i.e. nil, can consideration be given to lifting the restrictions in relation to Laois at an earlier date.
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