Johnson roadmap highlights different paths being taken by Ireland and England
BORIS JOHNSON has unveiled plans to reopen England after weeks of Covid-19 lockdown. Despite having one of the highest coronavirus death rates in Europe, the UK prime minister is moving far quicker to ease social-distancing restrictions than his counterparts in Ireland.
Work
During his televised address on Sunday, Mr Johnson urged people who could not work from home to return to work.
This means certain employees, such as construction and manufacturing workers, returned to work yesterday.
In Ireland, those workers will not return until next week.
The prime minister has come in for criticism for asking people to return to work while also asking them to avoid public transport.
There is no mention in the Irish plan for when factory workers should return.
Schools
PRIMARY schools could open as early as June in England.
However, secondary schools won’t return until September.
In Ireland, primary and secondary schools will not reopen until phase five of the Government’s roadmap.
However, there have been doubts cast over whether schools will be able to return in September.
In March, the UK took the decision to cancel secondary school exams and replace them with a grading system.
Plans to hold the Leaving Cert later this summer were abandoned last week.
Exercising
FROM tomorrow in England, people will be encouraged to exercise as often as they wish and will be permitted to sunbathe in parks and on beaches.
Sports including tennis, golf and angling will also to be permitted.
Similar rules for sport and exercise will be introduced here next week.
One difference is that England is only allowing households to engage in sporting activities, while in Ireland groups of four people can meet to play sports as long as they adhere to social distancing guidelines.
Restaurants, cafés, pubs
THE rules on restaurants and cafés are similar in both countries, with July earmarked as the time for reopening these businesses.
The English plan gives no date for reopening pubs, while the Irish roadmap suggested August would be the earliest date for bars returning.
There is pressure from lobby groups in the two jurisdictions to allow pubs to reopen sooner.
Airport arrivals
MR JOHNSON decided people arriving into England from Ireland and France will be excluded from quarantine rules.
In Ireland, all passengers arriving from overseas must self-isolate for two weeks.
The Government is also in the process of making it mandatory for arrivals to fill in a passenger location form, so authorities can check up on them.
The Taoiseach’s office said there is “regular and ongoing contact” with Downing Street but stopped short of saying they were made aware of Mr Johnson’s decision on people arriving from Ireland to the UK. The Department of Foreign Affairs was also not contacted about the decision.
All-island consensus
SCOTLAND and Wales will not follow the Downing Street plan because they believe it is too early to lift restrictions.
The Irish Government and the Northern Ireland Assembly have been working together behind the scenes on their responses to the virus.
However, the Government’s decision not to brief leaders in the North on their roadmap caused some tensions.
There is pressure from lobby groups to allow pubs to reopen sooner
Face coverings
IN ENGLAND, citizens are being urged to wear face coverings when in contact with people they would not ordinarily meet. This includes when they are on public transport or when they are shopping.
In Ireland, advice from the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) on face coverings was removed from the Government’s roadmap for reopening the country. Nphet had recommended the Government draft guidelines on face coverings over the coming weeks which would be published in early June.