The plan to speed up exit from lockdown

Travel: People allowed to go anywhere within their county Shops: Every retail outlet given green light to open on Monday Pubs: ‘Table service’ guidelines part of reopening in three weeks

IRELAND is being fast-tracked out of months of Covid-19 lockdown after the Taoiseach announced a major acceleration of the easing of social distancing restrictions.

Leo Varadkar decided to overrule public health advice to speed-up his roadmap for reopening the country.

The significant move means from Monday people will be able to travel anywhere in their county.

The decision was taken despite advice from chief medical officer Tony Holohan insisting people should only be allowed to travel 20km from their homes.

Meanwhile, every single retail outlet across the country has been given the green light to open their doors to customers next week as long as they adhere to social distancing rules. Shopping centres can also reopen even though Mr Holohan said they should remain closed.

The Irish Independent has also seen a new Government report suggesting the twoweek self-isolation period for passengers arriving in Ireland should be lifted for certain people.

The Department of Business report said if the quarantine rules were extended or strengthened it could discourage people from coming here for business which in turn could damage the prospect of receiving future foreign direct investment.

It also warned Ireland should not introduce stricter conditions on air travel when the rest of the EU is opening its borders.

The report called for the reopening of all retail outlets next week and said hotels and other accommodations should be opened as soon as possible too.

Meanwhile speaking last night on Virgin Media One in an interview with Pat Kenny,

Mr Varadkar said that the Government may modify the advice on two-metre social distancing. He said that while two metres is the public health advice, it may not be practical in every scenario.

Mr Varadkar gave the tourism industry a major boost yesterday when he announced travel restrictions for the entire country would be abolished at the end of the month and people would be free to book staycations.

He also said pubs would be able to reopen on June 29 as long as they followed the same guidelines set for restaurants which were already earmarked to begin serving again.

“That will mean table service, socially distant, but not people sitting at a bar or hanging around, standing, as you might like to do in a pub,” he said.

“It will effectively be pubs and bars that can operate as if they were restaurants, but they won’t need to have a restaurant licence.”

The Taoiseach said the “summer is not lost” and urged people to “explore our country as if for the first time and rediscover the beauty that is all around us”.

Mr Varadkar said people had “earned the right to be hopeful about the future again” as he announced the five-stage roadmap would be cut back to four phases and would end in July.

In a move aimed at easing the burden of lockdown on children, the Government decided to allow summer camps as long as they are limited to 15 children.

However, children’s playgrounds in Dublin city will remain shut on Monday pending “further clarification”.

In a statement, the council said it noted the announcement that ‘supervised’ playgrounds would be allowed to open. However, it said: “Dublin City Council does not operate supervised playgrounds,” and it will not be reopening them until it receives clarification.

Fingal County Council also told the Irish Independent that it was awaiting further clarification on the matter.

Older people are also permitted to have small groups of visitors in their homes from next week provided they adhere to

social distancing guidelines.

Shops are being asked to provide dedicated hours for people over 70 and the medically vulnerable, with strict social distancing in place.

Shoppers should ideally wear face coverings. Those who are cocooning can have a small number of visitors to their home who should be “extra-vigilant”.

The 10-person limit at funerals will be raised to 25. Religious services are expected to resume on June 29, subject to safety restrictions.

Behind-closed-doors horse and greyhound racing can commence. Elite athletes may also return to their training facilities. Public libraries may open so long as the numbers allowed in are limited.

Questioned on whether the Government went too far in allowing stores in shopping centres to reopen, despite the advice from the National Public Health Emergency Team to adopt a slow approach, Dr Holohan last night said there was no conflict. He said the logic was that there was no rationale in leaving a small number of shops unable to open. There had been good compliance so far by shops in areas like social distancing.

Referring to plans to allow visits to nursing homes, Dr Holohan said that new guidance had been issued.

The guidance, with effect from June 15, states that each resident has a maximum of two named visitors, only one of whom can be present at a time for less than 30 minutes. Visits cannot be unplanned and visitors must wear a surgical mask.

He appealed to people planning to protest today in Dublin in a Black Lives Matter event in memory of George Floyd not to do so, saying this kind of gathering was not recommended because of the difficulty in physical distancing.

Meanwhile, Labour Party leader Alan Kelly said the Government had followed his call by reducing the roadmap to four phases and was critical of its failure to outline a plan for the health service.

“Adapting our public health service to our ‘new normal’ must take precedence now in the coming days as the Government finalises the details around opening up of society,” he said.

He said he was “extremely disappointed” the Government decided to cut the pandemic payment for part-time workers.

His comments came after the Government announced it will cut the weekly €350 payment for part-time workers from June 29. Anyone who was earning up to €199.99 per week before the outbreak will receive €203 per week.

However, the €350 payment for those who were earning more than €200 per week will not be reduced until at least August 10. The wage subsidy scheme will also remain unchanged until the same date.

Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe said: “I will expect to see a continued decline in reliance on the scheme throughout the summer as the economy continues to reopen and people are able to return to work.

This economic recovery will be monitored and will inform a decision later in the summer on the need for further extension or tapering beyond August.”