Offaly people asked to remain vigilant as Covid cases rise

THE people of Offaly have been asked to remain vigilant against the threat of rising rates of Covid-19.

County Council chief executive Anna Marie Delaney said on Monday that there is a “little bit of concern over the weekend that numbers are creeping up again”.

Ms Delaney asked people to “bear with it and keep up the good work over the next couple of weeks and hopefully we'll be reopened in time for the 1st or 2nd of December”.

She also urged people to shop local, a call which was echoed by Cllr John Carroll, Cathaoirleach of the council.

“Many of our businesses are available to shop in online and those that are not are click and collect,” said Cllr Carroll.
There had been a huge increase in online shopping, he accepted but he stressed that the council got its rates base from commercial and “it's important that we ask the community to make sure to support them at this time when there is some money floating around.”

In relation to rising Covid case figures, he added: “We still ask people to comply with the regulations and socialising only where necessary.”

Ms Delaney said the council's community helpline is still operating on number 1800 81 81 81 and in terms of business, there had been an unprecedented number of calls to the Local Enterprise Office.

“They're continuing to provide the mentoring on the financial supports.”

Trading online vouchers have been well utilised and there were also Brexit supports, including loan schemes.

Ms Delaney also pointed to the assistance to the community through getting broadband and wifi services to churches and parishes in recent months.

“Church services are helping to bridge that to help to connect with senior citizens and communities generally in relation to services and assist with technology provision.”

Cllr John Leahy, Independent, agreed that churches remained crucial in communities and praised the work of the council's information technology chief, Ray Bell.

“If you want to get to heaven, hold Ray Bell's hand. Every parish priest is praying for him at the moment with the amount of wifi and broadband and cameras he's putting in.”

“He's going above and beyond the call of duty. He's out Saturdays and Sundays on the phone to different parishes.”
While there had been “a change in the dynamic of what the beliefs are in the country, “church is still a huge part of rural Ireland and there's a huge amount of people that are benefitting from that service and I thank the council for their intervention on it.”