Coronavirus: Summer shows shut down

- With additional reporting from Eamon Quinn

The summer has effectively been cancelled, with gatherings of more than 5,000 people banned until September because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The extension on restrictions comes as the Government confirmed the country is now in severe recession, and faces a budget deficit of up to €30bn this year.

In a move that will devastate towns and villages all over Ireland, the Government decision to extend restrictions will have huge implications for thousands of events across the country, including summer festivals, League of Ireland matches, and especially for the GAA Championship.

Several Cabinet ministers, speaking to the Irish Examiner, voiced misgivings at having to extend the restrictions, but argued that they “had no choice”.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said there will not be any change to current lockdown restrictions before May 5, and that changes after that will happen gradually.

“It won’t happen in one go, it won’t happen overnight. It will happen in steps every few weeks,” he said on PrimeTime last night.

“We want to open areas of our economy which have the lowest risk when we do reopen.”

At its weekly Cabinet meeting, the Government decided to continue the restrictions based on the public health advice of the National Public Health Emergency Team, which met yesterday.

“Local authorities have been advised by Government that event promoters should be informed that events requiring licences in excess of 5,000 will not be considered for the period up to the end of August,” the Government said.

The organisers of the Galway Races said yesterday evening that this year’s festival will not be open to the public, and they were exploring the viability of running it behind closed doors.

The Rose of Tralee festival is also unlikely to go ahead, its organisers warned last night.

The country is “clearly now in the midst of a severe recession” and is set to shrink by 10.5% this year on foot of the Covid-19 crisis, according to Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe.

As a result, the public finances are under severe strain, and a deficit of €23bn is projected for this year.

This forecast is based upon the full restrictions in place at present being lifted after 12 weeks — but that deficit could spike to €30bn by the end of the year if the lockdown is continued.

Mr Donohoe warned that 220,000 jobs will be lost before a recovery in 2021, when a 5.5% increase in employment is projected, but the economy will not return to where it was at the start of this year until 2022.

Hopes are rising that the EU can make progress as early as tomorrow on agreeing a recovery plan of up to €1.5trn that would help rescue Europe from the Covid-19 crisis, leading economists have said.

Mr Donohoe said “the recovery will be gradual and partial”.

He went on to warn that the economy was unlikely to return to the position it had been in at the start of this year until 2022.

However, Kieran Mc-Quinn, research professor at the Economic and Social Research Institute, said there were positive signs that EU leaders are inching closer to agreeing on a recovery package for the continent.

Economist Jim Power said that the restrictions are likely to be lifted in the second half of the year, and that the signs are that the EU “will throw a lot of ammunition” in promoting recovery.

The latest restrictions in operation since Friday, March 27 mandate that everyone should stay at home, only leaving to:

• Shop for essential food and household goods;
• Attend medical appointments, collect medicine or other health products;
• Care for children, older people or other vulnerable people - this excludes social family visits;
• Exercise outdoors - within 2kms of your home and only with members of your own household, keeping 2 metres distance between you and other people
• Travel to work if you provide an essential service - be sure to practice social distancing