Ryan defends Cabinet waiting until Tuesday to discuss January restrictions

Eamon Ryan. File picture: Julien Behal

Transport Minister Eamon Ryan has said that ferry companies offering direct routes to the Continent are being asked to bring forward services due to commence the first week of January.

Mr Ryan told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland that he believed the ferry companies could move “fairly quickly”.

As for Irish truckers currently stranded at UK ports awaiting sailings to the Continent, Mr Ryan said some of them will have to turn back and look at other routes.

When asked if people who had travelled into the country in recent days should self isolate, Mr Ryan said yes they should.

The Minister defended the Cabinet decision to wait until Tuesday to meet and discuss the reintroduction of restricitions sooner than January 6. He said the Cabinet needed to be fully updated by their European colleagues and by Nphet. 

“It’s far better to get all the information” before making a decision, he said. Mr Ryan said that if a meeting had gone ahead today they wouldn't have "full updates from our European colleagues as to what their plans are".

It was likely that there will be a return to restrictions sooner than originally planned, he admitted. 

There was now a dual timeline, he said. It was going to be a balance between how quickly the vaccine could be rolled out and continuing to implement public health measures.

“As a country we have done well.” 

The new variant of Covid proved how important it was for people to take the vaccine when it becomes available. 

“It is the best way for us getting away from this problem.” Mr Ryan said that schools, especially secondary schools, had done a good job and they were a safe space.

The Government was just waiting for the EMA approval at which stage Professor Brian MacCraith’s timeline for distribution would ‘kick in.’ 

Responding to a suggestion by a professor of European public health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Martin McKee, that there was enough evidence to be “very concerned” about the new strain of Covid-19 identified in the UK and a strong case to ban Irish freight drivers from entering the UK temporarily, Mr Ryan said that the freight companies have run an isolated system and the evidence to date would show that Ireland’s freight system was a safe process.