Government aiming to provide 'as much clarity as possible' with new Living with Covid plan
Minister for Justice Helen McEntee said she appreciated people wanted clarity and the Government wanted to give it and they wanted to ensure that this was the last lockdown. Picture: Sam Boal/Rollingnews.ie
Minister for Justice Helen McEntee has said that the Government will “give as much clarity as possible” on Tuesday on the new Living with Covid plan.
Speaking on RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland, Ms McEntee said she appreciated people wanted clarity and the Government wanted to give it and they wanted to ensure that this was the last lockdown.
“But we need to do so in a careful way.” The Minister said that she, and all Ministers, including the Taoiseach, wanted to be able to answer questions about the Living with Covid plan, but that they were dealing with a virus that changed daily.
“We will be assessing how to open society carefully.”
Meanwhile, tourism Minister Catherine Martin is to bring a suite of new measures to Cabinet to support the hospitality sector which is facing a second summer season of uncertainty.
She will encourage her Cabinet colleagues to extend the 9% Vat rate for the sector until 2025 and continue the Stay and Spend scheme until the end of this year.
It comes as the public was warned that "we’re looking at an outdoor summer" by the chair of Nphet’s epidemiological modelling advisory group Philip Nolan.
The Cabinet is to sign off on an updated version of its Living with Covid plan tomorrow, which will focus on getting children back to school before a phased and gradual reopening of other parts of the economy.
The updated plan will not set out particular dates for the lifting of restrictions as it is understood members of the Government are concerned about new variants and the spread of the virus.
Health Minister Stephen Donnelly will also bring plans to bump certain at-risk groups up the vaccination list to Cabinet for approval.
It is understood Ms Martin has written to Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe and Government leaders urging them to introduce further supports beyond what is currently available.
Ms Martin wrote that "the industry has real concerns that restrictions around the country will last into and beyond the summer".
The Irish Hotels Federation has called for an urgent review of financial supports after the Taoiseach indicated that pubs, restaurants, and hotels will not be allowed to reopen until the middle of the summer. It said 160,000 hospitality workers who will not return to their jobs until then are devastated.
Mandatory quarantine legislation will go through the Dáil this week and through the Seanad the following week and Ms McEntee acknowledges it has been too slow in implementation.
"I fully appreciate that people may feel that this is not happening quick enough but we're the first country in Europe to introduce this type of measure, we are talking about a legislation that will essentially mean people must go into a hotel quarantine for two weeks when they come into this country.
"We need to make sure that people's civil liberties, that their rights are protected, but that we do so on public health grounds. This legislation will be finalised in the next two weeks, it will be operational immediately after that, but we need to get this right, this is not legislation that we can rush out in them.
"In the meantime, I would say any person, irrespective of where they are coming from coming into this country must take a PCR test, and now legally they must quarantine in their home before this legislation comes into effect so there are measures in place, and overall our travel is down probably about 98%, from what it would normally be."
