Living with Covid plan to focus on schools, childcare, and non-virus hospital patients

Taoiseach Micheal Martin will reveal the full details of the Government’s revised Living With Covid plan on Tuesday evening. Picture: Tom Honan/PA Wire

Getting a million children back to school, reopening childcare services, and treating non-Covid hospital patients in March will be the main elements of the Government’s revised Living With Covid plan, to be announced today.

However, severe limitations on both personal freedoms and businesses across the country are to remain in place for at least another seven weeks, Taoiseach Micheál Martin will announce. 

One minister said last night that March and April will be "quite difficult months".

Following a lengthy meeting of the Cabinet sub-committee last night, the plan will be brought to a full meeting of the Cabinet today and announced in full this evening.

The three Government party leaders — Mr Martin, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar, and Eamon Ryan — are to speak again ahead of Cabinet this morning in order to finalise the details, a Government source said.

In a late twist last night, speaking on RTÉ Television, Health Minister Stephen Donnelly caused confusion by saying Education Minister Norma Foley “is still in negotiations” with the teachers’ unions on a return to school for thousands of students, and the matter is not yet agreed.

He said a late issue arose and that meant talks are still ongoing. However, a spokesperson for Education Minister Norma Foley moved to clarify the matter, saying: “Talks concluded with the unions early Monday afternoon. The Department will be making an announcement after Cabinet that is in line with the Government's Living With Covid Plan.”

In a comment posted on Twitter, Mr Donnelly also sought to clarify his remarks, saying that the talks "had concluded" and the Government "intends on making an announcement" on school reopenings after Cabinet this afternoon. He was roundly criticised by the opposition for causing further confusion for parents. The miscommunication prompted Labour education spokesman Aodhán Ó Ríordáin to characterise the Government as "dysfunctional".

If that aspect is agreed, the main elements of the plan will be as follows:

• March will see getting children back to school, the reopening of childcare, and addressing the non-Covid backlog in hospitals as the main priorities;
• From next Monday, March 1, primary school children in Second Class and below, as well as Leaving Cert students, will return;
• Fifth Year pupils and other primary school children are likely to return two weeks later on March 15, but non-exam years are unlikely to return until after Easter;
• The vast majority of third-level students will not return to campus until September
• There is unlikely to be any relaxation of the 5km travel restriction. The Attorney General has warned to do so would negate the current ban on rent evictions;
• The plan allows for a review of other measures in the Easter week, the week beginning April 5, at which stage some relaxation on social activity including sports like golf and tennis are likely;
• Personal services and non-essential retail will not return before April;
• It will be “much later” into the summer before any relaxation in hospitality is likely and indoor dining is “still in doubt", sources said;
• There is likely to be some “reconfiguration” of the vaccine rollout schedule with vulnerable people with respiratory illnesses set to be offered earlier jabs;
• It is also understood that pandemic unemployment payments and business supports will remain in place until at least the end of June.

Senior Government sources, speaking to the Irish Examiner, said the lifting of the 5km rule is unlikely before May. This, they said, is partly because the rent eviction moratorium is linked to the 5km rule.

Under the moratorium, any time a travel restriction is imposed nationally because of public health regulations, the ban comes into place. 

However, it only applies to national lockdowns with 5km restrictions. There is some frustration among Government TDs because of this, with some saying that the law should be rewritten.

The Government is very worried that public buy-in to its strategy is now crumbling. 

A new Central Statistics Office study found that around one-third of the country’s population are not staying within 10km of their homes, and the level of adherence to Covid-19 restrictions has been decreasing during February. 

In every county, people are increasingly travelling further than 10km.

Justice minister Helen McEntee. Picture: Sam Boal/RollingNews.ie

Meanwhile, justice minister Helen McEntee said the introduction of mandatory hotel quarantine for people arriving into Ireland from 20 high-risk countries is still "three to four weeks away". 

She said legislation will first have to go through the Dáil this week and then the Seanad next week.

Asked when they will be open, she replied: "The legislation will be implemented in the next two weeks, and I expect that the quarantine hotels will be up and running after that. 

"If the legislation is passed in the next two weeks ... they would be open in three to four weeks."