Too early to link rising Covid cases to nightclubs, says minister

Culture Minister Catherine Martin oversaw the reopening of clubs after 20 months two weeks ago. With Covid cases staying high since, however, she said there was no evidence the two things are linked.

The Culture Minister says it would not be right at this time to link rising Covid figures with the reopening of nightclubs.

Catherine Martin oversaw the reopening of clubs after 20 months two weeks ago. With Covid cases staying high since, however, she said there was no evidence the two things are linked.

Speaking in Dublin at at an event celebrating the 25th birthday of TG4, Ms Martin said a review of the reopening would take place next week as planned.

"I don't think it would be right to point at one particular sector. You can see why we we put in place, I suppose, the belt and braces approach we did to get the nightclubs reopened, but also the priority is to protect public health. And so, you know, we said that there would be a review after three weeks and we will review that and engage and with the sector."

Restrictions

Ms Martin echoed Tánaiste Leo Varadkar in saying the Government does not want to impose Covid restrictions.

"We don't want to be putting restrictions in place and that's exactly why we put in the guidelines and regulations in relation to the queuing system and then the e-tickets in advance to get them open, we want to them to remain open. 

"I suppose nothing is ever certain in Covid but we were expecting the numbers to to rise and I guess we have to look at the full scenario as we already said over the last few months.

"It's the numbers themselves – the case numbers plus the hospitalisations plus the ICU."