Matt Cooper: Making lockdown decisions based solely on public health is the wrong treatment plan

The criteria on which we reopen our economy cannot exist in isolation from economic issues. We have already had the longest lockdown of any EU, or western, nation by far

A quiet Grafton Street in Dublin: many businesses across the country forced to close by Covid may never reopen Picture: Getty

Businesses and jobs do not feature on the list of criteria the government has set for the easing of level 5 Covid-19 restrictions, but they should.

We are facing mass unemployment, with enormous social and political consequences, for many years to come; a surge in the number of businesses unable to reopen; and an even greater drain on the public finances. Those are not secondary issues.

It is true that we have had nearly 2,000 ...