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TODAY IS THE day that Ireland will commence what the Taoiseach has described as ‘Phase Two Plus’ of its roadmap to ease Covid-19 restrictions.
At the start of May, Varadkar announced a five-step plan for lifting the measures put in place by the government to slow the spread of Covid-19.
That five-step plan has been condensed down to four and a number of measures have been brought forward after the government announced the acceleration of the previous roadmap on Friday.
The government advice to the public has changed from “stay home” to “stay local”.
Health officials have stressed that the modifications are not a licence to return to normal but instead, incremental evolution of the country’s approach to the virus as new cases and hospitalisations continue dropping.
Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan said as Ireland progresses through the road map’s phases more focus will shift to individual responsibility to comply with relaxations.
“If people want to find loopholes in it and ways of doing things or just simply ignore it it’s difficult for us to stop,” he said.
“The majority of people are with us and want to stay with us for their own protection and for the protection of their families and for the protection of the community.
Yesterday evening, the National Public Health Emergency Team confirmed one further death and 25 new cases of coronavirus in Ireland.
So what changes today as we embark on Phase Two of Four?
Have permission, will travel
First off, public health advice is still for people to avoid unnecessary journeys and to continue to work from home if possible.
As part of the accelerated roadmap, people will be permitted to travel anywhere within their own county, or up to 20km from home, whichever is greater from today.
The government is stressing that, while restrictions on travel and on many activities have been eased, people should “stay local”.
In terms of social visits, up to six people from different households can now meet up both indoors and outdoors for a short period while maintaining strict social distancing.
Social visits also apply to the over 70s and medically vulnerable who can welcome a small number of people to their home. People are advised to wear face coverings and gloves during these visits.
There is to be a phased reintroduction of visiting at nursing homes, starting on 15 June in homes that put in place required protocols.
Additionally, up to 25 immediate family and close friends can attend funeral services for loved ones from today. A maximum of 10 people were permitted to attend a funeral since mid-March.
Where is open?
Most shops will be able to open their doors today, while shopping centres will open at the later date of 15 June.
There will be dedicated hours for those who are over 70 or in an at-risk group.
All businesses that are reopening will have to comply with the government’s mandatory return-to-work health and safety protocols and ensure strict adherence to social distancing rules.
Shop opening times will be staggered to relieve pressure on public transport which people should only use if they absolutely need to as capacity is limited because of social distancing requirements. Walk or cycle if you can.
The National Transport Authority says services on public transport in line with the pre-Covid “Monday to Friday” schedule will be in place for buses and Dart services from today, however, social distancing requirements will mean that overall capacity on these services will be restricted to 20% of pre-Covid levels.
Buses – including Dublin Bus and Bus Éireann – will also revert to pre-Covid schedules at weekends. However, Dart schedules on Saturdays and Sundays will continue to operate at reduced levels.
It is still recommended that face coverings be worn on public transport and in public places, such as shops.
In terms of cultural and social measures, public libraries with limited numbers can now reopen.
Some good news for kids, the country’s playgrounds are due to reopen today, NPHET said Friday that they should be “supervised and regularly cleaned by local authorities”.
Dublin City Council said it won’t be reopening its playgrounds as they are not supervised, however, its deputy chief executive Brendan Kenny said over the weekend that he would be working with the government to find a way to open them at some point in Phase Two.
Outdoor summer camps are also now allowed to operate for secondary school children – once there are no more than 15 people involved.
“Importantly, primary school-age children are still attending primary school until the end of Phase 2 and therefore it would not be appropriate for them to attend summer camps,” NPHET noted in their advice to government.
In terms of sport, groups of up to 15 people, including trainers and coaches, can return to non-contact outdoor training activity (but not matches) while maintaining social distancing at all times. High-performance athletes and their support staff are permitted to resume training at specific locations.
Greyhound racing and horse racing is to resume behind doors today. The Irish Greyhound Board confirmed they have arranged a schedule of trials to commence at all 14 greyhound tracks.
Today will so see the phased return of some services for drivers, with 15 National Car Testing service centres reopening.
These include Little Island and Blarney in Cork; and Northpoint 1 & 2, Deansgrange, and Fonthill in Dublin.
The other centres open from today are Galway, Limerick, Waterford, Letterkenny, Athlone, Ballina, Naas, Drogheda, and Derrybeg.
The phased reopening of the National Driver Licence Service will also begin today – with the reopening of 20 centres initially.
These are: Carlow, Cavan, Citywest, Clarehall, Cork, Drogheda, Ennis, Galway, Kilkenny, Leopardstown, Letterkenny, Limerick, Longford, Monaghan, Naas, Roscommon, Santry, Trim, Waterford, and Wicklow. The rest will reopen later in June.
The Driver Theory Test will also resume today, with the opening of all 43 centres around the country.
What will remain closed?
As things stand, pubs will remain closed for Phase Two but will be able to reopen on 29 June once they serve food. For pubs to open on this date, they must operate a table service and adhere to social distancing rules.
All other pubs can reopen on 20 July – three weeks earlier than originally planned.
The National Public Health Emergency Team is to develop guidance for the hospitality sector ahead of 29 June.
Barbers, hairdressers, and nail salons will also remain shut until 20 July as their work involves “almost face-to-face contact” which makes it a “high-risk engagement”.
Phase three is scheduled for 29 June, when hotels and other parts of the domestic tourism sector can reopen.
Varadkar said he hoped to see hotels, restaurants, hostels, caravan parks, galleries and museums will reopen by the end of the month. It is anticipated that places of worship will also be able to reopen from this point.
For all this to happen, Ireland must continue to report low levels of infection.
The daily Department of Health briefings, which have become daily viewing for many, will move from five days a week to two days - every Monday and Thursday.
The drop to two briefings a week signals that the country is making progress against the virus, however, in its advice to the government, NPHET said it was mindful that stricter measures will have to be reintroduced if there is a strong upsurge of infection.
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Hopefully people don’t take too many liberties, and we can all move together to keep this virus suppressed, while returning to some sort of normality.
@Mark Cooper: are you related to the gooch
@Mark Cooper: My sentiments exactly!
, who actually is this phase for, is it for the decent people who tried to comply with the law is it for the black lives matter people who don’t seem to comply with the law. it would be nice to have one law or rule everybody complied with. Its not going to happen is it because there’s nobody in forcing anything.
@Braonain Proinseas: Are you implying the “black lives matter people” aren’t decent? Cuz fighting for justice and raising awareness of inhumanity in Ireland and the US seems pretty decent to me. I think a better choice of words would’ve been “compliant people” and “protestors” (since everyone should be a black lives matter person).
@Dino: No, I’m talking about the inhumanity and injustice of systematic racism that has oppressed people of colour. And the cases in Carrigaline/Limerick, as unfortunate and horrible as they are, have nothing to do with race. You’re clearly trying to make my comment into something it’s not.
@Dino: unfortunately I can’t post a screenshot here but if you check out Twitter you will find a post from the boy’s friend who confirms that it was not a race related attack.
@Olive McClaw: The point as you well know is that there are other ways of protesting than breaking government restrictions and putting lives at risk here. Playing on use of words dilutes your argument
@Olive McClaw: black lives matter only when it’s a white person against a black person, where are all these protests when the blacks kill each other ?? Most of these protests were hijacked by sc**bag rioters. Why was is ok to get together in their 1000’s to protest and it’s not ok to have more than 10 people at a funeral ??
@Olive McClaw: well said.
@Olive McClaw: flutes,flutes disregarding everyone elses rights as they deem theirs to be on a higher plain,yup,flutes would work equally well ?
@Mary Downes Montcho: if it was a group of white kids attacking a black lad,you would do well to sell that theory ?
@Olive McClaw: it’s such a pity olive we Irish couldn’t do that and show our humanity and raise awareness of this issue when young white Irish lads died in suspicious circumstances in Irish police custody the Terrance wheelocks, the johner moloneys and so many more if I start naming them my comment will be deleted again look them up.
No one cares because they had criminal records an they are quiet simply “white”..
i don’t know why we have to keep apologising and felling sorry, black ppl are not oppressed I havnt seen it in my lifetime and I doubt any of the BLM have had to endure any oppression in there lifetime. Making them feel like they have did you see what they were writing in there WhatsApp about the whites stab them an rob there white sl*ts.
But no story about that.
@Mary Downes Montcho: unfortunately I can’t post a screen shot here but anyone that’s on FB can find the BLM WhatsApp group messages i suggest you find it if you haven’t already and have a look at what they were saying and tell me it’s not about race.
@Olive McClaw: OK but if it was a recorded attack of a load of white lads attacking a prone black lad on the ground with a Snapchat name of whatever the white alternative name of “niggz” or whatever it was do you think that a lot of people, media included wouldn’t paint it as a racial attack? Especially in the last few weeks. It it undeniably thuggery but it could easily be construed as racist.
@Olive McClaw: It has everything to do with race when young black men are attacked by white men but not when young black men take out their anger and attack young white men? Give over you bald faced hypocrite
@The Boss: I understand your sentiment and awareness should be made about these crimes too. White people have faced oppression but the difference is it was never because of the colour of their skin. Irish people were oppressed because they were Irish not because they were white. And believe me, oppression definitely exists even if you haven’t seen it. Research it, learn the history as you’ve learned about Irish history. Then you might understand. And when we say Black Lives Matter, we’re not saying all black people are perfect human beings. They should be subject to the same judicial system that everyone else is. If they commit a crime they should punished like everyone else is. But by no means should their crimes and anti social behaviour be representative of the entire black community.
@Alan: Yes, I agree. The protests were badly organised. But my point was that they were protesting for a great cause, perhaps not in the best way, but it’s unfair to call them indecent.
@AL T: The protests are for clearly racist agenda attacks on people of colour. When black people attack each other, there isn’t a racist agenda. When a black person attacks a white person there can be a racist agenda but that’s usually not the case. When a white person attacks a black person it more than likely has a racist agenda. And in America, it always seems to have a racist agenda. I agree with you regarding the protests, they could have been executed better or done another way. Not sure why you’re mentioning the rioters, there were no riots in Ireland. And many of the riots have been shown to be started by the police themselves in America.
@Olive McClaw: precisely what I’m implying
@Olive McClaw: “When a black person attacks a white person there can be a racist agenda but that’s usually not the case. When a white person attacks a black person it more than likely has a racist agenda. And in America, it always seems to have a racist agenda.” <- this is what is wrong with these protests, people get attacked all the time and there us just as much racism in the black community as the white, we are all people, we are all the same and we all deserve to be treated the same! You just presume a racist agenda when it's white on black like the killing of floyd which it now looks like had nothing to do with racism since the cop in question is married to an asian woman. Are black men in America more likely to be involved in violent crime than white men? Yes is the answer if you take the proportion of white males involved in crime compared to black males. Is this likely resultant from a culture and a socio economic problem in america? Yes probably but that doesn't make people racist to be fearful of young black men dressed like thugs, it makes them just as correct as they are to be fearful of gangs of young white men dressed like thugs the same as we are here on the streets of Dublin, Cork, galway l, limerick or any other city/large urban area.
@Mary Downes Montcho: You don’t think there was any racial anger in that man’s decision to stab a prone white man on the ground repeatedly? You’re having a laugh surely. But hey thats just what it looks like the same as the floyd incident. Its OK to jump all over that rare incident but not this one as we don’t want to be accusing a black person in the wrong as that could be perceived as racism?
I’m 30 odd kms from my mother’s house and I’m going to see her and I don’t care. My family and I have been holed up and doing our best to stay home and within the restrictions since the kids finished school.
@Fergal O’Hagan: so why change what your doing now. My family have been doing exactly the same thing , my parents are 23kms away and my in-laws are 2hr drive away. We’ve missed them but just because the restrictions have eased and yes some people will take the piss doesn’t mean you should just throw the towel. Sadly not everyone has common sense but If we all just give up then we’ll be back at phase 1 again.
@Fergal O’Hagan: So you pick up thevirus and pass iit to yout mother, very sensible
@Fergal O’Hagan: well if shes in the same county, ur fine….all within the rules.
While I didn’t necessarily agree with the direction our government took in dealing with this crises I followed all the advice to the T. Well feck it now, I’m not in the vulnerable category and nobody in my family is so if thousands of people can go off and do their own thing then I’m not going to bother listening to the advice either. I’m having a big house party next weekend with 30 invited over for homemade pizza and a few beers and some decent socialising for the first time in months. Good luck to the rest of the country but I’m not going to be the fool playing by the rules any more for the common good.
@Dino: so because some people went out and peacefully protested in the name of social justice while wearing masks you’re going to spit your dummy out and have a party. Fair play to you
@Dino:
Those type of bars and grills are down for the moment, Dino.
@Dino: An ruin the good work that you have done and oma=an and bitched your way through
@Dino: what do you want ? A Gold Medal
@Dino: is that an invitation??
@Lisa Quinn: not quiet got around psychologically to inviting people i don’t know well yet but looking forward to getting back to near normal.
@Stephen Brady: It wasn’t some people it was thousands and it wasn’t prevented by our government. They shut down businesses causing people to lose their livelihoods, they shut down all social outlets too in the name of public health and we all stupidly went along with them as it obviously isn’t that serious if they are willing to let thousands congregate for a meaningless protest against some imagined injustice in another part of the world!
@Dino: yah eeediot
@Stephen Brady: it wasn’t me who changed the emphasis on the importance of collective sacrifice to try and deal with the virus?
@Dino: yeeediot
Same for all who are flaunting the rules.
@ed w: Exactly!! Anxious times for people with routine cancer screenings all suspended. Extremely anxious time for people who already had battles with cancer(s) previously to be left in Limbo this past 3 months – which will of course create another waiting list backlog…something that has become so wrongfully commomplace throughout our public health system will now also affect the private system…how long will the ‘catch-up’ phase go on for?? The whole point of cancer screening is early detection…timely diagnosis is the whole aim of ANY screening programme. Even more so for ‘surveillance’ diagnostics for cancer patients in remission!!
You have the right to catch covid and kill the relatives of your thirty guests in a fit of pique. Grow up!
cancer screenings ??
Good grief ….
What about all the commuters coming into work tomorrow? 14 on a bus from Co. Meath. Grow up.
@Linda Kennedy: Yep afraid so. But if communters wat to catchthe virus pack them in tight
@Gary Kearney: and what if you’re commuting for a medical appointment ? Should I too catch the virus cuz I’ve to get a bus?. Christ they didnt mention by phase 2 how bitter people would get.
Is Dublin a county, or do they mean, DCC, Fingal, DnL-R, SD?
People still need to be sensible and not hit the shops with the whole clan behind them..
have your say