DUBLIN CITY COUNCIL has announced it will open all playgrounds tomorrow, subject to them passing inspections to gauge whether it is suitable to do so.

The council said last week that its playgrounds wouldn’t re-open without supervision during Phase Two, despite the government announcing that playgrounds could do so if it was safe.

Deputy Chief Executive Brendan Kenny had said that there are no supervised playgrounds in Dublin city, suggesting this may have been a reason they would not re-open.

However, the council has now taken the decision to re-open playgrounds from tomorrow after receiving clarification regarding last Friday’s announcement.

During that announcement, Health Minister Simon Harris said that playgrounds “could re-open” if it’s safe to do so.

“What we need our local authorities to do is to look at the range of outdoor facilities that they have, for families and for children, and to see can they open some of them based on the public health advice,” he said.

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“Could the playground open based on there being someone there to supervise, on the basis that there would need to be regular cleaning of equipment?”

He added: “Local authorities will make different decisions in relation to this, but I will appeal to them all to try to open as many as is safely possible to open. It’s been a long number of months for families.”

With reporting from Gráinne Ní Aodha.