The ‘Playing a Blinder’ myth: The Republic of Ireland's pandemic response revisited

Kirwan, Jordan

In a previous paper, ‘The Playing a Blinder Myth and why we must not forget shortcomings in unprecedented times’, it was argued that acting Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar's response to the pandemic was one of opportunism rather than one of competency. By adopting a similar method to the previous article, this piece will provide an updated discussion and commentary, based on newspaper articles covering the newly formed Irish (Republic of Ireland) government's response to the pandemic to date. This paper discusses the governance of the coalition of Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and The Green Party to examine whether the context of the pandemic deflected the Irish public's attention from what was simply a continuation of the Government's normal approach to welfare, housing and healthcare. Therefore, this paper will focus on the coalition's decision to screen and tax recipients of the Pandemic Unemployment Payment, the enactment of housing strategies that have not met the existing issues within the housing market and how previous measures have not provided adequate protection for the healthcare system during the pandemic.In this short article, the Republic of Ireland's government response to the pandemic is revisited after a year of living with coronavirus within the context of welfare, housing and healthcare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Irish Journal of Sociology is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)