Dr. Samuel McConkey:

I am happy to talk about that. Unfortunately, regions such as New York, Milan and Wuhan that were hit by this when they had no restrictions suffered not only significant healthcare problems but also huge economic damage. It is the case that much of the economic damage is inevitable due to the virus. Of course, the economic restrictions, especially on businesses such as cruise liners and those in the airline industry or the hospitality and tourism industry, have been very bad and have affected different parts of our economy differently. Some sectors I mentioned earlier, such as pharmaceuticals, are booming, as are supermarkets, delivery services and Internet shopping. It is very difficult to have a very divisive set of circumstances where some of us in the economy are doing fine while others are losing their jobs and suffering catastrophic loss of their wealth, assets and businesses. Trying to keep social cohesion in that K-shaped recovery, as was outlined in theFinancial Times, is really difficult. Unless we can keep the co-ordinated action of 5 million voluntarily working together, we will not come through this successfully.

We are in a potentially socially fragmented, and politically fragmented, future. Trying to hold us together as one nation is difficult. Perhaps in some countries such as Sweden, there is greater trust in authority, in public health experts and in the government, but we in Ireland are basically independent folk. At least where I come from, in Monaghan, the Border area is full of people who, in their own head, believe they know everything and that they can do what they like, and many people will identify with that. Trying to get co-ordinated action is really challenging, as is balancing the economy. I have been saying since January that the economic impact of this would be huge. This is the greatest challenge, in my view, that the State has faced in 100 years, since the Civil War, which we are getting over only now. There is no doubt that the governance challenges here are still colossal and are something that nobody imagined during the campaign for the February election.