For the past several months, the challenge for Irish business has been surviving the enforced lockdown due to coronavirus.

Tánaiste Leo Varadkar has criticised Sinn Féin TDs and leaders for turning up at a “photo op” at a funeral despite Covid-19 concerns and social distancing rules.

Over one million Covid-19 emergency loans have been advanced to UK companies that are 100%-guaranteed by the British government, starkly showing the wide gap in supports for firms in the Republic.

A murder investigation has been launched in the North after the death of a man at a house there early this morning.

Nobody could possibly say that players and coaches don’t win championships; equally, Liverpool’s owners are proof that organisations certainly do, writes Tommy Martin.

Another four people have also tested positive for the virus.

The rule is expected to change to 1m, with restrictions, as lockdown measures are relaxed.

Just one new case has been reported.

A status yellow thunder warning has been announced for all of Ireland.

Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe’s planned summer Covid-19 recovery package need only cost €2.7bn upfront but could save many thousands of jobs at small firms, according to Ireland’s main business group, Ibec.

First Minister Arlene Foster said the move would enable the majority of primary and secondary schools in the region to operate “close to normality”.

The National Health Protection Surveillance Centre has confirmed that 3 further people with Covid-19 have died in Irish hospitals.

Planemaker Bombardier is to cut up to 600 jobs in its Belfast operations as part of plans announced last week to cut 2,500 jobs - or about 11% - of the workforce in its global aviation unit.

Five men have been arrested over allegedly laundering €1.5m acquired through cybercrime, organised prostitution and theft.

There has been one reported Covid-19 death in the North today, officials have said.

The news comes a day after the Republic announced no new Covid-19 related deaths for the first time in over nine weeks.

‘Extraordinary measure’ will help with contact tracing, says Harris

Clarks has 13 stores in the Republic and four in the North, all of which have been temporarily closed due to the Covid-19 restrictions.

Pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson say the decision to pull talc-based baby powder from the shelves of supermarkets in the US and Canada will not impact sales in Ireland.

Diversified services group DCC has continued to trade strongly through the Covid-19 disruptions, helped largely by its energy division, which has continued to acquire businesses in Ireland and the US.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has admitted it would reflect badly on Ireland if creches and schools here were the last to reopen in Europe.

Of these, 37 occurred in hospitals, 36 in care homes, one in a hospice and three at residential addresses

Gardaí are planning to put “a ring of steel” around a Cork town to prevent a well-known horse fair taking place amid fears it would be a hotbed for the transmission of Covid-19 if it went ahead.

Dr Gabriel Scally, President of the Public Health section of the Royal Society of Medicine, has said there is a “real need” for North/South dialogue about Covid-19 testing and the need for travel restrictions.

Expect the highways and byways of north-west Cork to be well populated this weekend as 23 clubs battle it out for the title of Duhallow’s fittest GAA club.

North Korean media said leader Kim Jong Un has made first public appearance in weeks, ending rumours about his health.

Simon Harris said it made sense from a scientific point of view to have similar plans for easing lockdown measures in the North and Ireland.

Giving evidence to Stormont’s justice committee, Naomi Long also revealed that so far no prisoners in the region have tested positive for the virus.

The new laws will make coercive control like behaviour amounting to psychological, emotional or financial abuse a criminal offence.

Gardaí will launch a major crackdown ahead of the May bank holiday weekend to prevent people travelling to holiday homes, with one local authority to use drones at beaches to ensure compliance with social distancing.

At around 5.20pm on Saturday, a blue BMW was detected travelling at excessive speed on the M22 by a PSNI patrol.

It is after reports that anyone down here on a day trip from the North would not be affected by the coronavirus rules.

It was largely stopped last month based on “sound public health considerations” but will become “crucially important” to overcome local pockets of infection, the North's CMO said.

“Banking and insurance companies have a vital role to play in helping the tourism and hospitality sector during the current crisis."

The stark findings reveal that businesses will need between €2.4bn and €5.7bn in some form of liquidity -- on top of the wage-supports and self-employed business owners already announced -- if the most vulnerable SMEs are to survive the lockdown.

Health care workers in Northern Ireland have expressed alarm over official coronavirus guidance in England and warned the Stormont authorities not to adopt it.

In the North, there were 17 deaths announced today and 147 new confirmed cases.

Earlier today, the Irish Nurse and Midwives Organisation has revealed that nearly one in 10 people diagnosed with Covid-19 in the Republic of Ireland are nurses.

Business groups have said that Ireland stands out as one of the few jurisdictions that doesn't offer some sort of ultra-cheap or zero-rate interest loans during the crisis.

Debenhams Ireland said it had “no option” but to shut permanently its 11 outlets in the Republic with the loss of at least 957 directly- employed jobs because it was loss-making for a number of years.

Some parents were believed to have left their children to play at friends’ houses.

All 2,000 staff directly or indirectly working at the 11 outlets of Debenhams in the Republic, including at least 330 staff at its two Cork outlets, are set to lose their jobs as the troubled department store retailer goes into liquidation.

An further package of Government supports to help firms survive the Covid-19 crisis include an expansion of existing loan funds at reduced interest rates, and more vouchers to help small firms build an online sales presence and tap business advice.

Earlier today, there were five new deaths announced in the North, bringing the total there to 78.